Soundflavor is the latest playlist sharing service to move beyond just their sharing community (see my review) to offer a software download that plugs into iTunes to recommend playlists. The download is called Soundflavor DJ™, and you can download it here.

I haven’t been able to try the software yet as it’s only available for Windows, but versions for Mac and for players other than iTunes are promised. From the descriptions, it looks like a fairly similar product to the MyStrands plug-in. It also supports discovery of music in other people’s libraries (provided you are on the same local area network), which is an interesting extra dimension.

I like the way that, on the same day they announce the product, Soundflavor also publicise some research that shows — guess what — that digital music users are crying out for just the kind of support that Soundflavor DJ offers.

Under the heading “New Research Shows Consumers Suffering From Digital Music Overload”, here are the key findings they report.

• The average digital music collection is substantial: nearly half (49%) of digital music users have more than 500 songs stored on their computer or laptop.
• Digital music users are not listening to all of the songs that they like: 64% note that they have a lot of music that they like but forget to play.
• Digital music users have trouble finding new music online: 41% say they have a hard time finding new music that they like when shopping online.
• Retailers are missing out on a key opportunity to sell music: 84% of respondents would purchase more music if they found more of it that they liked.
• Digital music users want help building playlists and finding new music: 67% said that they would use a service that helps them shop for new music and create playlists based on music that they like.