In May, Apple bought headphone maker and music streaming service Beats Entertainment for $3 billion its Beats Music service boasts of its thousands of hand-curated playlists. In the answer lies profits, and if recent corporate transactions are any indication, billions of dollars await the service that finds a solution. Through mood-based playlists that compile sounds from across eras, companies are in a race to see who can best connect with a listener’s current emotional state, activity or life circumstance. All are committing much time and online real estate to exploring new avenues of doing so, many of which tap into our desire for music that reflects, enhances or adjusts how we’re feeling.

Other than solving the huge problem of fair compensation for musicians, the key question facing Beats Music, Pandora, Spotify, Rhapsody, Rdio and others is how to rein in the confusion. Loud, soft, old, new? Sad or happy? Lennon or McCartney? (Harrison!) Vocal or instrumental, intense or subdued? Rhythmic thump, distortion, anger? Or aural salve, warm with calm tones, space and easy melodies? In doing so, for a brief moment we reflect. We launch platforms and ask, what do I want to hear? We open iTunes and a decade’s worth of MP3s await on various hard drives, existing as lines of text on a screen and lacking any emotional allure. Few answers are more crucial to the success of music streaming services than the puzzle of navigating the infinite jukebox, where unlimited choice stirs a special brand of overwhelmed malaise.

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