The core of the mobile version of MyStrands is an MP3 player that keeps a history of the tracks you have played. There are also extras wrapped into the player which let you find out more about the track that you are listening to and you'll be sent recommendations about other tracks that you might like based on what you are listening to. You can also contact other people in the MyStrands community who have listened to similar music and if you have contacts in the MyStrands community you can interact with them online.

WHO WOULD USE IT?

This is a tool for music enthusiasts. The mobile version of MyStrands is closely integrated with the website so that anything you play on your phone will be added to your 'Recently Played' list on the site. Of course, the more music you play the more music the site can recommend for you based on your listening history.

WALK THROUGH

You need to start by setting up an account. You can do this from your phone or on the website. If you are going to do it from the phone, you need to visit m.mystrands.com to download the application to your phone first. Whichever method you choose to register, the account won't be activated until you have responded to an email from MyStrands.



The account set-up procedure asks for a valid email address, which is a bit of a trick. I tried both my Hotmail and my Gmail accounts and didn't receive any messages from MyStrands at all. However, when I used my work email account, I received a notification from MyStrands straight away, allowing me to activate my account. This may have been due to both Hotmail and Gmail blocking the messages as spam or MyStrands not accepting these accounts as valid email addresses. Whatever the reason, it was frustrating and took me a while to get going with the application.

Once you have finished the registration process you can start to play music through the MyStrands player. Every track you play is noted by MyStrands and you can view a list of all the tracks you listened to on the website.