Joox Music App
3:49:00 PM
Music plays a big part in my life, it defines my emotions, it sets my mood and it's basically the soundtrack of my life (well sorta).
When it comes to listening to music on my phone listening to a vast amount of music quickly and efficiently is very important to me with the popularity of streaming services it really makes listening to music more enjoyable. Now I have tried a lot of music streaming services Spotify, Nokia Music, Deezer, Pandora, Zune, Apple Music and now Joox. Personally the best for me is Spotify but they don't have it in South Africa yet (used it when I was in the USA) the most used was Nokia Music (now dead) and Apple Music (not able to use it anymore, can't afford it but very good) Deezer is last resort because they are completely free (with ads of course) and now enter Joox.
What drew me towards this app is their ad that runs on TV and on YouTube, a fairly simple ad nothing wow about it but the constant plays it was getting, was so much that I was compelled to download it. What really attracted me to the app was the South African connection (the ad is South African) but after being a little disappointed after finding out that it wasn't a proudly South African made app I really wanted to give it a try mainly for the music.
After downloading the app from the Play Store the sign in screen is awesomely simple and I really love it when apps offer other ways to sign in, it is using your social media accounts to sign in. I don't think Apple Music offers this because they rely on your Apple ID (you can see my Apple Music review right here) but big ups to Joox and many other apps that offer social media sign in because you save so much time not having to link it up with your email and having to think of yet another password on top of the gazillion passwords that you already have.
Layout
To my acknowledgement the app is split into four sections:
- Discover
- Radio
- My music
- Profile/My Account
Before I get into the app I just want to point out that Joox comes with a month of free music listening (if that makes any sense) basically for a month you can enjoy the apps full features for free.
Discover
This is the screen you land on after the app has fully launched, now a lot is going on here which is great because there is a lot you can choose from to cater to your taste in music.
You can easily search for exactly what you want in the search bar if you feel the choices are intimidating or when you don't find what you like.
There's a slideshow banner highlighting advertising (related to music), new releases and curtated playlists.
There are two buttons that can give you a more detailed result. Those buttons are:
Artists and Playlists
You get Joox Top Charts, now this is really good because from the apps that I currently use don't really have charts playlists. This is really good to track how songs are performing (if you are into that, like me) this also helps you to discover new music.
Editors Pick is great because you can trust the selection that has been made by this list and it helps you trust the choices that are made here. There is so much choice to choose from because it groups in many genres.
New and Hot Albums is pretty much self-explanatory this is great so you are up to date with what's hot and fresh.
The genre is pretty much the many playlists you can choose from and boy do you have a lot to choose from.
Entertainment lists music from your favourite TV shows, movies and series (pretty cool).
Radio also lists 'radio stations' just the same as playlists but differs in that the genres it hosts can be:
#StrictlyZA
Hits
4 The party animals
Old Skool
Mood (this is awesome)
Also while you listen to a song there is this radio dialer/frequency graphic that lets you switch between genres within the now playing screen.
Featured Artist showcases an artist's discography but Joox goes a step further by doing an artist's versus discography (this is really cool) for example you get to listen to two similar artists music where songs are pitted against each other.
Mood lets you choose music based on how you are feeling this is really good to be included in any music app because it saves you the time of creating your playlist based on your mood (that use to be a chore to do).
User Playlists is by far the stand out feature (well for me that is) in the Joox app. I think this should be standard on any music app, I first started experiencing this when I used Zune and Spotify. I love listening and discovering new music made by other users who are human not robots. This is special because you really go deep in the music world but better yet the sense of community makes for something to look forward to because now you are sharing music with other real people.
This goes far in that you can even view the person's profile also showing how many times it was listened to and how many times it was favourited, nice job Joox!
Now Playing
When it comes to actually playing music the layout is pretty simple, you have the album artwork of the song you are listening to and what's really cool is that it's in disc form (like a vinyl disc) that rotates as the song plays. Just on the edge or should I say the outer part of the disc you have this line that is grey and green. The grey line shows how fast and how far the song buffers, the green line indicates the length of the music playback (how long the song has played) this is a great feature, however, I wish it showed the minutes of the song this would be helpful to exactly know how long the song is (as a music lover this is important to know).
Just above this, you have an option to choose the quality of the stream/music here you have three options to choose from:
- Standard (1.3M)
- Medium (3.5M)
- High (5.3M)'
I have to warn you that you should be careful if you are listening using a data plan.
DTS (Dedicated To Sound) is where you set the quality of the music you listen to, it is a high-definition audio solution. You will also find your equaliser settings in this section.
Just below the disc is your lyrics section in sync with the song that is playing.
At the bottom of the now playing screen are buttons that add more to the now playing screen:
- Download
- Favourite/add to playlist
- Loop and Shuffle
- More (view artist, view album, share song, lyrics card)
On the top right corner of the now playing screen is a button that will give you the track list of the music that you are listening to.
To finish off this review I have to say the one thing that has blown my mind is how they really focus on South African music, it has really thought about the South African audience I don't think there is any other app that has gone all in in such details and I have to commend Joox for doing a really amazing job. Joox is available to download on Apple app store and the Google Play store be sure to download and use the one-month free offer trust me you won't regret it.
That's it for this post if you liked this review you can share or leave a comment in the comments section, til the next one.
Mr Lunga
2 comments
I enjoyed this review a lot. Sounds like an exciting app and will give it a try one of these days days especially for old school music. You said it's free for the first month but I didn't see you say how much one pays after the month. Excellent review once again!
ReplyDeleteHi Sue thanks so much for reading my review it means a lot to get some feedback I really appreciate it. About the pricing after a month you pay R59.99 or you can pay for a week R29.99 that's in South African Rands,now I'm not sure where you are based Sue but at least that gives you an idea. Joox is having a special where you pay 1 month and receive 5 months free!
DeleteThanks again Sue hope I answered your question.