Back in the day, it was easier to decide what to listen to: whatever you had with you. Once that was a bulky CD wallet of 12 carefully chosen albums. Then it was a few hundred digital files loaded onto an iPod, and then a couple thousand. Now that music is in the cloud, the embarrassment of riches can lead to decision-making paralysis.

Pandora can play you "stations" based on an artist, but if you don't pony up $36 a year, your grooves are interrupted by audio ads. Paid streaming services Rdio and Spotify let you fire up stations too, but those cost even more, at $5/month for web only and $10/month to go mobile. The Genius Mix feature in iTunes offers never-ending playlists, but only of music you actually own.

Which is why Songza is my new jam. Billed as a "music concierge," the free service and universal iPhone/iPad app is packed with playlists for any situation — relaxing on the beach, soothing traffic-jam road rage, getting work done (with lyrics or without), by genre, and even music recommended by some top-notch artists. (My recent favorite playlists are David Byrne's Record Collection and James Murphy's Record Collection.) It's so fun to use, and such a deep rabbit hole to play in, that I'm constantly surprised it's free.

Really, it's free. No audio ads, no listening limits. The relatively unobtrusive iAds stay on the screen, never in your headphones. Due to the licensing agreement, you can only skip six tracks an hour, and you can only skip forward, not back. While the music is playing, you can give it a thumbs-up or thumbs-down (to further tailor suggestions to your tastes), buy the track on iTunes, mark the playlist as a favorite, or share a link to the playlist via Facebook, Twitter, or email. Taking advantage of iOS's abilities, Songza can play in the background while you run other apps, plus you can control it with the remote on your iPhone headphones and it's fully AirPlay compatible.

The bottom line. With thousands of playlists, easy navigation, and most importantly, awesome music at no cost, Songza is a must-download, you hear?

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Songza

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  Songza on the iPhone works with AirPlay -- just tap the AirPlay button in the center of the toolbar.

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  Swipe the screen to the right to reveal similar playlists, the sharing/purchasing buttons, and the Favorite star. Note the crazy length of David Byrne's (outstanding) playlist, and the fact that you can still press pause from here. That's just good design.

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  You know you've always wanted to spend an afternoon spinning records with Joel and Ethan Coen.

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  You can ignore the thumbs-up and -down buttons entirely, or use them to clue Songza in on your tastes. (Although if you don't like Willie Nelson's "Georgia on My Mind," you might not have a soul.)

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  Songza on the iPad is similarly easy to navigate.

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  The Concierge feature keeps drilling you down by mood or situation, then offers you a selection of appropriate playlists.

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  The iPad's roomier interface keeps all the controls handy at all times.

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  Stream music from Songza to your AirPlay speakers with just two taps.

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