Pandora Radio from Music Genome Project

kramthegram writes "The Music Genome Project, an attempt to define music by it's traits in a way similar to DNA defines traits in humans has led to the development of Pandora. Pandora uses the song choices you make to see what traits appeal to you and present you with custom radio station. While limiting you to thumbs up or thumbs down, the "gene" heuristics allows for a very quick adaptation to your musical tastes." Not sure how deep it goes, and I'm not sure I like that it led me from The Who to Styx and Def Leppard. But this is a neat little tool for discovering new music.

Tips for getting the most out of Pandora

[Anonymous Coward]

The best resutls come from submitting a song that you like. Using the Artist will most likely get you going down the wrong path. This is due to not all songs sounding similar from one artist. I have had the best results by putting in 2 or 3 songs that are similar to my ear that like. If you can't think of any songs by an Artist, Google it first. Also, there is a "rating" system. If you like the song, then give it a Thumbs Up, if you don't, give it a Thumbs Down. This will help your station learn what kind of music you are actually looking for. Rate the songs for better results.

That's because...

[sczimme]

At least this one took over a month.

That's because it was on Fark.com (yesterday? the day before?), so the people that like to copy links from one site to the other thought it was new.

Re:But

[Troglodyt]

That's not how it works, it lets you hear bands that sound similar, not bands within the same genre.
So the label people put on bands doesn't matter, it's how they sound.

www.music-map.com

[kill-1]

A very similar concept that actually works is www.music-map.com [music-map.com]. This engine takes the input of all users into account and really let's you discover new artists from the genres you like.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Last.FM

[xtracto]

I find Last.FM [www.last.fm] a better method to find new music. Granted, the new Player REALLY SUCKS, I used it before they started the new player thing. There is a Proxy [gimp.org] being developed which restores the old functionallity more or less.

Oh, that and the Pandora music project is not free:

Q: How much does it cost?

Pandora is available in two forms. Both versions have exactly the same features.

The first form is an advertising-supported version which is entirely free. Over time we'll be incorporating ads into this version of Pandora.

For those who want to steer clear of advertising, subscriptions are available in two different flavors:

        ANNUAL: 12 months of unlimited use for $36
        QUARTERLY: 3 months of unlimited use for $12



while the last.fm is free unless you want a "personal" radio.

Music-Map

[Alef]

The site is not responding (big surprise). But from the description it sounds like it is similar to Music-Map [music-map.com].

Re:So then...

[Troglodyt]

Pandora and LastFM are two very different services.
LastFM is recommending music you might like from a social perspective.
Pandora builds on the music genome projects, and lets you hear music that actually sounds similar, not music that other people who like your music might listen to.
It's kind of a double edged sword I guess, since you arguably get to listen to more new music through LastFM, but with Pandora you get to listen to stuff you would never have found through your social channels at all.

Not entirely novel...

[CupBeEmpty]

I have been a happy (and donating) user of Last FM [last.fm] formerly Audioscrobbler. They do a really good job of matching up music tastes and their radio program is good. They also have a plugin that allows you to submit what you play from most major audio players so you can track what you listen to and compare with others. They have full tagging capabilities and extensive forums as well as music 'groups' of like minded appreciators. I have been very impressed and I admit I haven't played with Pandora much but it doesn't seem too much better/different.

It works, just try it

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been using Pandora for a while now. Although sometimes it misses badly, it generally gives you bands or songs similar on their 400 qualities. It does not go by genre, it goes by stuff like 'tone progression', 'emphasis on studio production', 'melody', etc. It does NOT go by genre or label. I've discovered some good artists with this thing.

TIP: When you hit the max songs per hour limit, just start a new 'station' with another band/song you like or that was already listed.

Re:What I still havent seen anyone do

[Anonymous Coward]

You should try looking at http://www.synapseai.com/ [synapseai.com]. They have a great player that does exactly what you've suggested. They also have a winamp plugin called "The brain" which works pretty well too, except that it plays all file types(including video) from your library. It doesn't really suggest anything that you have never played yet though. It simply listens to your habits, and suggests songs(or video) that you already played.

Why would they lie?

[pavon]

Basically what you are saying is that they are lying about how they choose songs. But why would they do that? If they were using social networking or grouping by genre, and it worked, why wouldn't they say so?

Furthermore I haven't seen anything that would lead me to think that they are grouping things like you claim. Try typing in a band like Ween. You won't get anything that is remotely related by genre or popular tastes at all.

One of the biggest things that I like about this site is that it does play different artists than I find with other systems that determine thier suggestions by genre or social linking (people who liked A liked B), and I have liked many of them.

I can think of a million songs with 'Mild rhythmatic syncopation' and 'Major key tonality' (just an example of the reasons it told me it was playing a song), and I would probably only like a small portion of them.

They are rating on hundreds of different factors. The fact that two songs are related by just one of those factors would not cause it to be played. It is the fact that it is related on a large number of those factors. And it isn't surprising that music within a genre share many traits with each other.

I suspect that the genre of my song (eg 'Hard rock roots' or 'punk roots' etc) is the biggest deciding factor in what it plays -- not the actual style of the song.

Again I don't see any reason to think this. I have found it rare for it to only play music within a specific genre, and to the extent that it did, the songs were all musically simular.

Re:www.music-map.com

[s-meister]

Much better is http://www.liveplasma.com/ [liveplasma.com]. Thanks, brett77, I lost this link and only just found it again from your post in an old topic. LivePlasma (flash only, sorry) does a far better job with my tastes than music-map.

Re:IMMS

[spydir31]

you should try IMMS [luminal.org], I think it does exactly what you want.
it has no interface other than the player's next/prev and playlist, and is fairly easy to port in case your player isn't supported
(there's only a small plugin that needs porting, currently supports XMMS and BMP)