"The Music Genome Project®
On January 6, 2000 a group of musicians and music-loving technologists came together with the idea of creating the most comprehensive analysis of music ever.
Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or "genes" into a very large Music Genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It's not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records - it's about what each individual song sounds like.
Since we started back in 2000, we've carefully listened to the songs of tens of thousands of different artists - ranging from popular to obscure - and analyzed the musical qualities of each song one attribute at a time. This work continues each and every day as we endeavor to include all the great new stuff coming out of studios, clubs and garages around the world.
It has been quite an adventure, you could say a little crazy - but now that we've created this extraordinary collection of music analysis, we think we can help be your guide as you explore your favorite parts of the music universe"
This is amazing. You plug in the name of a band you like, in my case, Carbon Leaf, a semi famous roots/acoustic/celtic rock band from the Mid Atlantic Region. Pandora will search its database and analyze songs for similiar "genomes" to Carbon Leaf...acoustic instrumentation, Celtic influences, vocal harmonies, etc...and find bands and songs that I should like. Here's the cool thing: it really works. In the six months I have been using Pandora on a consistent basis, I have found more bands than I can count that I love, and whom I had never heard of before, and without Pandora I would have been hard pressed to discover them. As a singer and music nut, Pandora has been an absolute dream. I can share my stations with other Pandors users, find people with similiar musical tastes, and essentially create my own musical social network. One of the very best of Web 2.0 applications.
3 comments:
Ahh, another Pandora fan!
I'm among the converted, so I have to agree with you, Tom: this site is one of the very best web 2.0 apps for music fiends. As far as their suggestions: the fact that they get it right more often than not is amazing. I also love the fact that you can create multiple 'stations', quickmix them for variety, and send repetitive songs away for a month. It's perfect radio!
Along these lines: Tim Westergren just sent an email about Pandora and efforts by the National Association of Broadcasters to kill H.R. 7084, which would have helped Pandora continue its negotiations with RIAA on internet radio royalties. He's asked people who listen to & enjoy Pandora to contact Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. at 202-225-4671 & express support for H.R. 7084.
Very cool, Tom - you're right on the cutting edge of web 2.0 & the law! :)
- Tara
I am also a Pandora fan, I tend to have it on most of the day at work and really enjoy creating my own stations, then tailoring them via individual song feedback. It is indeed a terrific site!
It seems like all of the major companies are latching on to this idea as well. Apple just started the new Genius lists on iTunes and they appear to work on the same principle.
However, I feel that if they know what timbre of music touches you that they're almost literally getting inside your head ever closer to the very stuff that evokes things within your soul.
Er... that came off a bit dramatic...
What I could also say is that this idea is really cool. :-)
Peace,
-Steve
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