This is one of the cooler sites I have seen on the internet in quite a while. If you are not already familiar with The Music Genome Project, it is an absolutely incredible project begun about 6 years ago to assemble a database analyzing music to an extent never imagined before. Those involved in this project have listened to and analyzed music by over 10,000 artists, cataloguing every conceivable aspect of their music (in their terminology, the music's "genes").
Until now, this database and concept had been quite fascinating for me to think about, and as a musician by training, I would love to cuddle up in front of a warm fire with that database. However, I wasn't certain how it would be put to practical use. But then a friend of mine showed me Pandora, what is certain to be only one of the first of many amazing uses of the research.
Essentially, Pandora is an internet radio (currently free and ad-free, but eventually it will include advertisements for the free version with the option to avoid ads by subscribing to the site). But it is radio designed to help you find music that you will like. You enter the name of an artist or album that you like, and the program creates a streaming radio "station" that plays music that is "genetically similar" to your selected artist or album. For example, I typed in one of my favorite groups, Bond, and the program played music by Bond, Tiesto, Moby, and others. A number of the groups I had never heard of, which is one of the cool things about the program, because it introduces you to music that you may not have heard of before but would likely be interested in.
Even more, you can tweak the programming by giving feedback. If you give a song a "thumbs up", the database will try to emphasize music that is similar to that song. If you give a song a "thumbs down" it will ban that song forever and try to avoid similar songs. If you just get tired of a song, you can put it to sleep, and the station won't play it for a month. You can create up to 100 different stations. And you can add more than one artist/album to a particular station.
Try it, I can almost guarantee you will be hooked!
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Pandora
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6 comments:
Yeah, but what if you hate a song for its lyrics but the tune itself rocks? There's a glitch in the rating system.
It took four tries before one of my choices was found in the database. I must have really shitty taste in music or like very obscure artists (or both).
Yeah, using it a bit more, I have found it has some definite gaps, but it is still a work in progress, as they are constantly listening to, analyzing, and adding to their database of music. When it does work, though, it's pretty cool.
I love how you suddenly have readers after your condom post.
Yeah, I've been laughing to myself about that all yesterday and today! So, the moral of this tale is, talk more about sex. I will do my best to accommodate my readers' wishes! :)
Well, considering my user name is chicago_sexbox, naturally perverted posts grab my attnetion more so than the wholesome ones.
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