The Music Genome Project
For those of you who love music as much as I do, you don't want to glaze over this. You will probably find this very interesting and should really check it out.
Most of the time I get my new music from the Adult Alternative cable radio station, from a "you might like" recommendation by Amazon.com when I buy a particular CD or by direct recommendations from friends and associates. The Music Genome Project uses technology to take an amazing leap forward in the search for new music.
From Wikipedia
The Music Genome Project, created in January 2000, is an effort founded by Tim Westergren, a 1988 graduate of Stanford University and spearheaded by a group of musicians and technicians to "capture the essence of music at the fundamental level" by using over 400 attributes to describe songs.
All songs are analyzed by a music analyst in a process that takes 20 to 30 minutes per song. Each gene is rated on a scale of 1 to 5. Ten percent of songs are analyzed by more than one technician to ensure conformity with the standards.
The technology is currently used by Pandora to play music for Internet users based on their preferences (available in the US only). Users are invited to create "radio stations" by entering artists or song titles. Pandora then uses an algorithm to select and play music similar to the users' selections. Since the algorithm selects songs on the basis of musical features, rather than artist popularity or record sales, many users have lauded Pandora for its ability to "recommend" unfamiliar songs that fit a user's preferences. Obscure artists may submit their music to the Music Genome Project in a bid to become better known.
How it works:
A given song "S" is represented by a vector containing approximately 150 genes. Each gene corresponds to a characteristic of the music, for example, gender of lead vocalist, level of distortion on the electric guitar, type of background vocals, etc. In a preferred embodiment, rock and pop songs have 150 genes, rap songs have 350, and jazz songs have approximately 400. Other genres of music, such as world and classical, have 300-500 genes. The system depends on a sufficient number of genes to render useful results. Each gene "s" of this vector is a number between 0 and 5. Fractional values are allowed but are limited to half integers.[1] (The term genome relates to a full mapped DNA organism.)
Ok so that math crap at the end was pushing it, I know LOL. In laymen's terms, it suggests music that it thinks you might like. All in all I'm finding it to be pretty accurate. Most people know I'm a big fan of mellow, accoustic music. So I can go to http://www.pandora.com and type in, say "Iron & Wine" and the system will generate a playlist of bands that sound very similar to Iron & Wine.
I'm talking spot on. As each song plays, you have the opportunity to mark it with a Thumbs Up or a Thumbs Down. Thumbs Down will remove that song from your playlist and Thumbs Up will retain it, as well as use that song's genome to further refine the search for songs that you'd like.
You can also create multiple stations which will run different algorithms to collect different kinds of music. I have an Iron & Wine station for my mellow accoustic music, a Freedy Johnston station for my Adult Alternative music, a Vince Guaraldi station for Jazz featuring the piano, a Dexter Gordon station for Jazz featuring the sax, a Bob Marley station for classic reggae, a Wolfmother Station for some hard rock, and a Donovan Frankenreiter for what I can only describe as "Neo-Surf music."
As a testament to how refined the system actually is, Iron & Wine, Donovan Frankenreiter and Freedy Johnston are all in a somewhat similar vein of music but obviously not identical. As a result, the algorithm returns a completely different set of music for each station which I absolutely love.
All in all I've been very impressed with it. In the last week I've been using it, I've been introduced to at least 30 new artists and bands, most of which I've never even heard of before all of which I really like.
So fellow music fans, I highly recommend you check this out and give it a shot if you're not already aware of it.
http://www.pandora.com
Do it... Do it... Do it... Boogieman out...
Most of the time I get my new music from the Adult Alternative cable radio station, from a "you might like" recommendation by Amazon.com when I buy a particular CD or by direct recommendations from friends and associates. The Music Genome Project uses technology to take an amazing leap forward in the search for new music.
From Wikipedia
The Music Genome Project, created in January 2000, is an effort founded by Tim Westergren, a 1988 graduate of Stanford University and spearheaded by a group of musicians and technicians to "capture the essence of music at the fundamental level" by using over 400 attributes to describe songs.
All songs are analyzed by a music analyst in a process that takes 20 to 30 minutes per song. Each gene is rated on a scale of 1 to 5. Ten percent of songs are analyzed by more than one technician to ensure conformity with the standards.
The technology is currently used by Pandora to play music for Internet users based on their preferences (available in the US only). Users are invited to create "radio stations" by entering artists or song titles. Pandora then uses an algorithm to select and play music similar to the users' selections. Since the algorithm selects songs on the basis of musical features, rather than artist popularity or record sales, many users have lauded Pandora for its ability to "recommend" unfamiliar songs that fit a user's preferences. Obscure artists may submit their music to the Music Genome Project in a bid to become better known.
How it works:
A given song "S" is represented by a vector containing approximately 150 genes. Each gene corresponds to a characteristic of the music, for example, gender of lead vocalist, level of distortion on the electric guitar, type of background vocals, etc. In a preferred embodiment, rock and pop songs have 150 genes, rap songs have 350, and jazz songs have approximately 400. Other genres of music, such as world and classical, have 300-500 genes. The system depends on a sufficient number of genes to render useful results. Each gene "s" of this vector is a number between 0 and 5. Fractional values are allowed but are limited to half integers.[1] (The term genome relates to a full mapped DNA organism.)
Ok so that math crap at the end was pushing it, I know LOL. In laymen's terms, it suggests music that it thinks you might like. All in all I'm finding it to be pretty accurate. Most people know I'm a big fan of mellow, accoustic music. So I can go to http://www.pandora.com and type in, say "Iron & Wine" and the system will generate a playlist of bands that sound very similar to Iron & Wine.
I'm talking spot on. As each song plays, you have the opportunity to mark it with a Thumbs Up or a Thumbs Down. Thumbs Down will remove that song from your playlist and Thumbs Up will retain it, as well as use that song's genome to further refine the search for songs that you'd like.
You can also create multiple stations which will run different algorithms to collect different kinds of music. I have an Iron & Wine station for my mellow accoustic music, a Freedy Johnston station for my Adult Alternative music, a Vince Guaraldi station for Jazz featuring the piano, a Dexter Gordon station for Jazz featuring the sax, a Bob Marley station for classic reggae, a Wolfmother Station for some hard rock, and a Donovan Frankenreiter for what I can only describe as "Neo-Surf music."
As a testament to how refined the system actually is, Iron & Wine, Donovan Frankenreiter and Freedy Johnston are all in a somewhat similar vein of music but obviously not identical. As a result, the algorithm returns a completely different set of music for each station which I absolutely love.
All in all I've been very impressed with it. In the last week I've been using it, I've been introduced to at least 30 new artists and bands, most of which I've never even heard of before all of which I really like.
So fellow music fans, I highly recommend you check this out and give it a shot if you're not already aware of it.
http://www.pandora.com
Do it... Do it... Do it... Boogieman out...