I just discovered Pandora by The Music Genome Project. Create your own radio stations based on an artist or a single song!Such a wonderful idea and fun discovery! Super easy, good sound, I can't believe I didn't know about this before.Okay, one bummer, I love The Flaming Lips and I tried to create a station based on their music and got a pop-up window explaining why they weren't playing their songs. Like everything else, legal clearance, rights to music, etc are involved so you may not find absolutely everything you want.I just registered free in about 30 seconds and in minutes created my own radio stations based on my liking the music and voices of Aimee Mann and the late Jeff Buckley. You can also search for other people's stations.You cannot rewind or replay these songs, but I'm not using them for anything other than my listening pleasure. Hee hee.Very cool! Below is a screen grab of what the interface looks like.Above: It took me two seconds to create an Aimee Mann based (or inspired) radio stationAbove: And another i second to add a Jeff Buckley inspired radio stationBelow is how they describe it on their site:When was the last time you fell in love with a new artist or song?At Pandora Media™, we have a single mission: To help you discover new music you'll love.To understand just how we do this, and why we think we do it really, really well, you need to know about the Music Genome Project™.For almost seven years now, we have been hard at work on the Music Genome Project. It's the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken. Together our team of fifty musician-analysts have been listening to music, one song at a time, studying and collecting literally hundreds of musical details on every song. It takes 20-30 minutes per song to capture all of the little details that give each recording its magical sound - melody, harmony, instrumentation, rhythm, vocals, lyrics ... and more - close to 400 attributes! We continue this work every day to keep up with the incredible flow of great new music coming from studios, stadiums and garages around the country.We've now created an interface to make this available to music lovers so they could use this musical 'connective-tissue' to discover new music based on songs or artists they already know.Pandora™ is the doorway to this vast trove of musical information. With Pandora you can explore to your heart's content. Just drop the name of one of your favorite songs or artists into Pandora and let the Genome Project go. It will quickly scan its entire world of analyzed music, almost a century of popular recordings - new and old, well known and completely obscure - to find songs with interesting musical similarities to your choice. Then sit back and enjoy as it creates a listening experience full of current and soon-to-be favorite songs for you.You can create as many "stations" as you want. And you can even refine them. If it's not quite right you can tell it more and it will get better for you.Above: what I created in about 2 minutes The Music Genome Project was founded by musicians and music-lovers. We believe in the value of music and have a profound respect for those who create it. We like all kinds of music, from the most obtuse bebop, to the most tripped-out drum n bass, to the simplest catchy pop tune. Our mission is to help YOU connect with the music YOU like.We hope you enjoy the experience!How Exactly Does It work?About The Music Genome Project™We believe every individual has unique musical tastes, and that music discovery tools need to have a rich understanding of music to account for this diversity. That's why Pandora's music discovery services are based on The Music Genome Project™, the most sophisticated taxonomy of musical information ever collected. It represents years of analysis by our trained team of musicologists, and spans sixty years of music.Each song in the Music Genome Project is analyzed using up to 400 distinct musical characteristics by a trained music analyst. These attributes capture not only the musical identity of a song, but also the many significant qualities that are relevant to understanding the musical preferences of listeners. The typical music analyst working on the Music Genome Project has a four-year degree in music theory, composition or performance, has passed through a selective screening process and has completed intensive training in the Music Genome's rigorous and precise methodology and procedures. To qualify for the work, analysts must have a firm grounding in music theory, including familiarity with a wide range of styles and sounds. All analysis is done on location.The Music Genome Project's database is built using a methodology that includes the use of precisely defined terminology, a consistent frame of reference, redundant analysis, and ongoing quality control to ensure that data integrity remains reliably high. Pandora does not use machine-listening or other forms of automated data extraction.The Music Genome Project is updated on a continual basis with the latest releases, emerging artists, and an ever-deepening collection of catalogue titles.By building products that utilize the wealth of musicological information stored in the Music Genome Project™, our technology can be highly responsive to each individual, and make it easy for music lovers to find new songs and artists they will like.
My opinion not good enough for you? Well then...Here's what the NY Times Had To Say About It:
The New York Times - TechnologyA Radio Station Just for youby Wilson Rothman
March 29, 2007
Now that the free ad-supported service has been operational for 15 months, it can use the behavioral data of its six million listeners to add a new layer of suggestion. For instance, even if, on paper, the musicologists think it logical to pair a song by the "American Idol" superstar Clay Aiken with one by the Canadian folk balladeer Ron Sexsmith, several hundred listeners may give the juxtaposition a vote of no confidence. Tim Westergren, a Pandora co-founder, says the database now contains half a billion useful points of "contextual feedback."
