Several Spotify-related sites combine album reviews from multiple sources with links to listen in Spotify. Biblify is one, along with Pitchify and Spotimy. New site TheBlend is the latest, combining reviews from eight different resources with Last.fm genre tags to create a slick and easy-to-use website.
TheBlend aggregates reviews from across the web and adds links to Last.fm, Spotify, and Grooveshark. Developer Nick Langridge created TheBlend because he wanted “a way to get new music from my favorite sites without having to check them all for new content every day.” Sites referenced include BBC Music, Pitchfork, Resident Advisor, Spotinews and The Music Ninja.
TheBlend shows a list of albums (with the most recently-reviewed at the top), each with a set of tags and links. Clicking the Last.fm icons takes you to the Last.fm page for that artist, while clicking the Spotify icon opens up the album in Spotify. Reviews are summarized with the date and links to read the full review on the originating site.
There’s an infinite scroll feature that’s pretty cool, but best of all is the integration of Last.fm genre tags. Not only does this give you a good idea of what to expect for each album, but you can also click a tag to customize the list and view only albums tagged with that genre. For example, I clicked the dubstep tag and the list is updated like this:
If you don’t see the genre you’re interested in listed, click the tags link at the top to display a list of the top 30 tags then click a tag to filter the page. If the genre you want still isn’t listed, you can type it in manually into the site’s web address. For example, for some strange reason the best genre in the world (i.e. synthpop) isn’t listed in the Top 30, but I can still view synthpop releases and reviews by entering a URL like this:
TheBlend is a great addition to the Spotify community and has already become one of favorite review aggregator sites. Nick tells me that future plans for TheBlend include an archive search, the ability to connect a Last.fm account for personalized views, multiple tag views and a “show all tags” option. Provided he keeps the site’s easy-to-use design aesthetic, I’m really looking forward to seeing some of these additional features.