pandora's box
steve and i heard an interesting story on npr a couple months ago. it was a feature on the music genome project which was then called savage beast and is now more appropriately called pandora. we were both pretty excited by the idea of the project - music genomes consume me (although i hadn't thought to call them that). i am constantly asking "well if i like so-and-so band then how do i find other bands that sound similar?" and that's the whole idea behind the music genome project. analysts and techies identify characteristics of a band you love (say, spoon, for example) and plug in some algorithms or some such something into a computer that will identify other artists who share those characteristics. so now pandora is in the trial stages and both steve and i are previewing it. i started this morning. first thing pandora asked me is to name a song or artist. so, after much thought, i chose spoon. and now i'm listening to spoon radio. first it starts with a very characteristic spoon song, from which it grabs certain musical characteristics and then it plays other artists. some of the the selections pandora made are based on "electric rock instrumentalisation, mild rhythmic syncopation, major key tonality [and] electric guitar riffs." some other characteristics they identify are "a subtle use of vocal harmony" and "punk influences." now, i'll be the first to admit that this is all very general and i could probably identify these other bands myself (or have steve do it), but it's neat to have your computer do it for you. it's got to be good for something, right? unfortunately, i haven't heard anything that really turns me on, but i think that's my own problem, not a fault of pandora. they've certainly featured a ton of bands i've never heard.i think i'll see what comes up for the new year, and cornershop next.
posted by bls @ 8:18 AM
3 Comments:
Very glad you've found Pandora and are playing around with it. We're really paying attention to feedback and would love to hear more about what's working and what's not for you.
Best,
Tom Conrad
CTO @ Pandora Media, Inc.
http://www.pandora.com
Hey Ms. Brandy--Can you invite me to pandora?
I am letting Pandora suggest to me things that sound like Soft machine. It has just come up with 'The Way We Get By' by Spoon.
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