Pandora vs. Slacker: music related by 'genome' vs. by culture

[BurtWorm]

I just started listening to Pandora iPhone radio recently and I love it. I was intriqued especially by the idea that their songs are linked by characteristic similarities rather than cultural connections. Songs on Lyres radio were linked by "unintellible lead vocals," for example. It made for a list that seemed perfectly attuned from one song to the next.

It seems that this method leads to some interesting discoveries. Listening to my John Dowland station, for instance, I discovered an unusual baroque composer named Biber. My Bud Powell station introduced me to the brilliant bop pianist Phineas Newborn.

I don't know if this will work for me forever, but I've made discoveries listening to music this way. Would I have made them by cultural connections? I don't know. It seems less likely that culture would connect me so quickly from Dowland (renaissance lute-player) to Biber (baroque violinist), but when people talk about Newborn, Bud Powell's name comes up quickly as a player with a similar intensity and technical ability, so perhaps he'd have shown up either way.

I only wish there was a way for Pandora to crowd source the genome analysis. The audience might catch more nuances than the Pandora staff is aware of.







http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/technology/08pandora.html?emc=eta1

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Some music lovers dislike Pandora’s approach to choosing music based on its characteristics rather than cultural associations. Slacker Radio, a competitor with three times as many songs but less than a third of Pandora’s listeners, takes a different approach. A ’90s alternative station should be informed by Seattle grunge, said Jonathan Sasse, senior vice president for marketing at Slacker. “It’s not just that this has an 80-beat-a-minute guitar riff,” he said. “It’s that this band toured with Eddie Vedder.”

Yet in 2008, Pandora built an iPhone app that let people stream music. Almost immediately, 35,000 new users a day joined Pandora from their cellphones, doubling the number of daily signups.

For Pandora and its listeners, it was a revelation. Internet radio was not just for the computer. People could listen to their phone on the treadmill or plug it into their car or living room speakers.

In January, Pandora announced a deal with Ford to include Pandora in its voice-activated Sync system, so drivers will be able to say, “Launch my Lady Gaga station” to play their personalized station based on the music of that performer. Consumer electronics companies like Samsung, Vizio and Sonos are also integrating Pandora into their Blu-ray players, TVs and music systems.

“Think about what made AM/FM radio so accessible,” said Mr. Kennedy, Pandora’s chief. “You get into the car or buy a clock for your nightstand and push a button and radio comes out,” he said. “That’s what we’re hoping to match.”