Genres, moods and instruments on Nova: how the tags work and how to use them

Nova describes its music in three ways at once. A track is tagged by genre, what tradition it belongs to; by mood, what it does to a room; and by instrument, what you hear. Because Loopcode Bilişim Yazılım Mühendislik Eğitim ve Danışmanlık A.Ş. (Lodos Nova) owns the whole catalogue, every track has been analysed the same way, and the tags are consistent from one artist to the next. This guide explains the three kinds of tag, how the tag pages on the website work and how to combine them.

Genre tags

Genre tags name a tradition or a style: ambient, new age, electronic, rock, jazz, soul, metal, classical, funk, house, techno, blues, pop, folk, flamenco, reggae and so on. A track usually carries one main genre and may carry others. On Nova, the biggest genre families are new age with 622 tracks, ambient with 497 and electronic with 486, followed by soundtrack, electronica, rock, jazz and soul, each with around two hundred. Smaller families are no less useful; flamenco has 143 tracks and reggae 36.

Mood tags

Mood tags describe energy and colour: tender, sad, happy, exciting, energetic, dark, intense, angry. They are the fastest route to music when you have a feeling rather than a name, and they combine naturally with a time of day. Tender is the largest mood on Nova by a wide margin; happy is smaller and precious for mornings. Our article on music moods explained describes each mood with examples.

Instrument tags

Instrument tags name what is in the mix: piano, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, synth, saxophone, violin, strings, trumpet, drums, vocals. They matter more than they might seem. The difference between a café that works and one that does not is often the instrument rather than the genre; acoustic guitar and piano sit under conversation, brass and vocals sit on top of it.

How the tag pages work

The genres and moods page on the website lists every tag that has a name and at least eight tracks, with its count. Each tag page lists its tracks with 30-second previews, and each track links to its album and artist. Tags are language-neutral: the page is the same in all six languages, only the label changes. In the app, the same tags drive search and the recommendations under a track.

Combining tags

There is no multi-tag filter on the website, but combining tags takes a minute in the app and is worth learning. Open one tag page and like the tracks that fit; open a second tag page and like again; then create a playlist from the likes that appear in both. Some combinations that people use often:

• Tender + piano: a quiet room, a spa reception. Aurelion, Doran Tan.
• Tender + acoustic guitar: a café in the morning. Morning Coffee, Calma's Picks.
• Happy + saxophone: lunch on a terrace. Patio Sessions, Louie Fontaine.
• Sad + violin: late evenings. Wisps, Yumae, Thavernia.
• Energetic + electronic: a workout. Core Frequency, the house and techno pages.
• Dark + electric guitar: a bar at eleven. Static Pulse, Omen, Depressive Rock.

The playlists guide shows the steps.

Tags and the radio

The five Nova stations are built from the same tags. Rock FM draws on the rock family, Jazz FM on jazz and its instruments, Lo-Fi FM on the gentler electronic and tender tags. If you like a station's mood but want to shape it yourself, the matching tag pages are the raw material.

Tags for businesses

For a venue, tags are the practical way to build a sound. Decide the instrument first, then the mood, then the genre, and work through the pages in that order; a shop that chooses acoustic guitar, tender and then jazz will end up with a very different list from one that chooses genre first. Our guide to building a playlist for your business turns this into a routine, and Nova Business provides the licence to play the result.

Reading a track's tags

On a track page the tags appear under the title, genre first, then mood, then instruments, each one a link to its tag page. Reading them is a quick way to understand why a track works somewhere. A piece tagged jazz, tender and piano will behave very differently in a room from one tagged jazz, happy and trumpet, although both are jazz. If a track you like surprises you, its tags usually explain it, and following one of them leads to more of the same quality rather than more of the same genre. In the app, the recommendations shown under a track are built from the same tags, which is why they tend to match in mood rather than only in style.

Frequently asked questions

What kinds of tag does Nova use? Three: genre, mood and instrument. Every track in the catalogue is analysed for all three.

Which genres have the most music on Nova? New age, ambient and electronic are the largest, each with several hundred tracks, followed by soundtrack, rock, jazz and soul.

Can I filter by two tags at once? Not directly on the website. In the app, liking tracks from two tag pages and making a playlist from the likes gives the same result.

Are the tag pages the same in every language? Yes. Tags are language-neutral; only the label is translated, so a genre page holds the same tracks in all six languages.