Prizm plays music based on tastes of people in the room

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Music curation became central to streaming services in 2015 and the Prizm wants to take it to the next level – choosing music based on the people in the room, time of day, your mood and more.

Given an official launch at CES 2016, the Prizm is described as a 'music brain' and connects to your existing speakers or hi-fi system. What it adds, is a unique music curation method.

The system will use your existing devices, from wearables to smartphones, and your streaming music subscriptions, to deliver the perfect playlist at any given moment, at the touch of a button.

What's more, it will curate a playlist based on who is in the room - combining everyone's music tastes in an effort to keep everyone tapping their toes. It will tailor your music to the time of day and learn your preferences over time to better deliver the right music choices. At least, that's the theory.

If you like what you hear you can hit a heart button on the Prizm device to automatically add the track to your Deezer or SoundCloud account. The unit itself uses your existing music subscriptions so claims access to 'up to 35 million tracks'.

The device has an Ethernet, USB and minjack audio output, so can connect to any analogue audio inputs on your system.

A successful Kickstarter campaign means the Prizm is ready to ship in 'early 2016' for $149, and certainly sounds like an interesting take on solving the 'what music shall I play now?' question.

MORE: CES 2016 news highlights

Joe Cox
Joe Cox
Content Director

Joe is the Content Director for What Hi-Fi? and Future’s Product Testing, having previously been the Global Editor-in-Chief of What Hi-Fi?. He has worked on What Hi-Fi? across the print magazine and website for almost 20 years, writing news, reviews and features on everything from turntables to TVs, headphones to hi-fi separates. He has covered product launch events across the world, from Apple to Technics, Sony and Samsung; reported from CES, the Bristol Show, and Munich High End for many years; and written for sites such as the BBC, Stuff, and the Guardian. In his spare time, he enjoys expanding his vinyl collection and cycling (not at the same time).