Pandora - Music Genome Project

[timwhit]

I have been playing with Pandora for the last day and a half and I have to say that it is really cool. (Yes, it is flash, but you can deal with it for something this sweet).

It is based off of the Music Genome Project that was started about 6 years ago to categorize songs by 400 attributes. You enter songs or artists that you like and then it streams (128kbps) music that are similar to the songs/artists that you entered. You can then give each song it plays a thumbs up/thumbs down depending on if you like it or not. It will continue to tailor what it plays each time you say you do or don't like a song.

It is a great way to find music that you want to buy/steal depending on your disposition. I am just listening to it at work, most of what it plays I like and if I don't like a song, I tell it that I don't like that song. It continues to get better at choosing things that I like. The cool thing is that I haven’t even heard of a lot of the artists that it is playing, these are artists that I would never find out about without Pandora.

If you like music, you have to give this a try. Give it some time though, you can't tell it 3 songs you like and expect it to instantly know all of your tastes.

Downfall for Mercutio: No classical music, yet.

 

[ddrueding]

Thanks for the tip, I've been playing with it, and it seems really cool. Right along the same lines as MoodLogic and Predixis MusicMagic. Perfect

 

[Gilbo]

I've heard of Pandora, and it's definitely worth checking out. I don't have as much experience with it as I do with it's biggest competition, Last.fm, which is one of those Web 2.0, social services that everyone seems to think is going to save the world (regular reading of Nicholas Carr's blog provides a nice reality check IMO).

In this case though, it works pretty damn well. It's predicted over and over again that I would like artists that I do, indeed, like. Some of the connections are damn impressive. Of course, as with all things Web 2.0/social, you have to watch out for being sucked into the least common denominator. I think the service might work especially well for me since I don't listen to very many mainstream artists (or do listen to enough unusual ones), so I don't get sucked into the popular singularity that these services tend to enforce. (Sometimes I imagine the internet as forming giant blackholes all over the place beyond which people never venture. A service which shows my the opposite of what I'm supposed to like along with all the things I'm going to be comfortable with would be especially valuable IMO).

You can view my user page as an example of what the service does. It tracks your listening habits, compares them with others, and generates recommendations. For free you get recommended, neighbour, and artist radio. Recommended is just what it sounds like. The service compares your listening habits with others and draws from their listening habits to recommend music to you. I believe user-tagging also influences this process so you won't get deathmetal just because you listen to all the same jazz as some jazz + metal-lover. Neighbour radio is somehow distinct and is based on the radios of people with the most similar listening habits to you. They produce noticeably different results. Lastly, artist radio is simply radio devoted to artists similar to an artist you enter. Like Pandora you can get personalized radio for a monthly subscription. With Last.fm it's $3/month (I think Pandora is $10). I haven't tried the paid-for service. You also get a few other perks including priority if the servers become overloaded (i.e. a non-paying subscriber will get booted so you can listen), although I've never seen the servers overloaded.

The big downfall I've discovered with Last.fm over the last couple weeks is that they don't have a large selection of songs by less popular artists. Yesterday my recommended radio died after something like 8 or 9 songs, simply because Last.fm didn't have any more songs by any of the artists on my recommended list. The list is 30 artists long and Last.fm had no music from 19 of my recommended artists --albeit many of my recommended artists are not at all popular, and I believe most people would have better luck.

P.S. I'm getting some pretty strong deja vu writing this post, if I've mentioned all this in the past, please forgive me. My memory is just terrible when it comes to my actual life; information, geeky stuff --no problem-- but bring up a dinner or conversation I apparently had with you a month ago and odds are you're going to get a blank, confused look.

 

[Gilbo]

Oops, Pandora is cheaper than I thought.

 

[timwhit]

The only difference is if you pay you will see no ads. If you do pay, then you get an ad-free version.

 

[Mercutio]

Sites that claim to deal with "music" and yet can't handle classical music or jazz - aren't really sites about music. It's like claiming to have a porn site but only having pictures of feet.

 

[timwhit]

I'm sorry to disappoint you.

Has anyone else given this a try?

 

[mubs]

Sites that claim to deal with "music" and yet can't handle classical music or jazz - aren't really sites about music. It's like claiming to have a porn site but only having pictures of feet.

But that'll satisfy people who have a foot-fetish, no?

 

[Gilbo]

Quick thoughts:

Pandora++,
1. They have a tremendous selection of less common music.
2. They're pretty damn good in terms of getting related sound out of their recommendations.

Last.fm++,
1. Tracks my listening habits on my home collection using a plugin for Amarok.
2. Also pretty damn accurate.

 

[Mercutio]

But that'll satisfy people who have a foot-fetish, no?

Yes, but the label is still rather misleading.

 

[Mercutio]

Pandora finally added classical music. I must say that I am pleased and impressed. The devout, sensually minimalist works of Arvo Pärt lead to 21st century movie soundtracks, 19th century choral works and medieval plainsong. I'm finally experiencing what the music genome project was supposed to do.

 

[udaman]

Word- iPhone/iTouch>iTunes. Flash blows on dialup, it's a pandora's box>no go.

In music world Merc, Rap is pr0n, haven'g you heard...it's evil .

 

[Gilbo]

The Last.fm iPhone app has made my life better.

 

[P5-133XL]

I really like Pandora. I made it one of my home pages so that it is always running as long as I have a browser open.

After seeding a station, I simply reject anything it comes up with that I don't like and it didn't take long for it to stop sending me bad stuff and it comes up with good music that I didn't know about. I am really impressed.

 

[Handruin]

I listen to pandora almost every day at work and I've been really happy with the music selection.

 

[ddrueding]

It is a good week when I hear a song I haven't heard before and feel the need to turn it up. Almost all of them come from Pandora these days. The most recent hit?

Beck
Guerolito
Wish Coin (Go It Alone - Remix By Diplo)

Really interesting rhythms combined with fun chord progressions that interact in interesting ways with the chords and rhythms from the original song, which you would only catch if you knew the original well enough to be able to compare the two.

Fun fun.

 

[Handruin]

Ever since going to PAX, I've become a fan of MC Frontalot (also on Pandora). After seeing him in concert, I bought all his CDs and had him sign them for me. This crowd might not like it because it's hiphop (Nerdcore), but he's very creative and seems like a nice and humble down to earth guy. His music makes me laugh at times with the things he comes up with for a nerdy white guy. There is also a pretty well-done documentary about him called Nerdcore Rising (available on netflix streaming).

Some fun examples:
Final Boss
Disaster
Zero Day

 

[LunarMist]

My musical genome has an autosomal recessive defect.

 

[ddrueding]

Had to Google that...

 

[LunarMist]

... then you've probbaly never been tested for anything.

 

[ddrueding]

Nothing genetic, you count that as "everything".

 

[LunarMist]

Nothing genetic, you count that as "everything".

I did not mean it that way.

 

[ddrueding]

Sorry, there was supposed to be an "if" in there. Didn't mean it to be an accusation

 

[Mercutio]

Avatar looks really, really cool on a big TV in 1080p.

 

[LunarMist]

I have no 1080. :blue:

 

[Mercutio]

I have no 1080. :blue:

They're getting to the point where they're truly inexpensive. I realize you value resolution over size, but there's something to be said for surface area as well.

 

[LunarMist]

I don't really have a place to put a decent sized display, and the old TV set would have to be hauled away.

 

[timwhit]

I don't really have a place to put a decent sized display, and the old TV set would have to be hauled away.

You don't have a garbage? How about Salvation Army or Goodwill?