Have it Your Way

More and more, the web is about what you want, how you want it, when you want it. Of course, this is part of the premise of "Web 2.0," the notion that you, the user, aren't just a recipient of information (the TV model), but you are the producer, programmer, writer, even actor in the drama of your internet interactions.

Another newish entry into the field of "all you, all the time" is Pandora (www.pandora.com). Pandora is the result of bringing the "Music Genome Project(c)" to the user.

What is the Music Genome Project(c)? As the founder of the project explains, "

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."

What does all that mean to you?

Well, using the Pandora interface, you can create a playlist of music that tracks along with your tastes and preferences, without you necessarily having to own or select the specific cuts.

Go to the main page of Pandora, and enter a favorite artist or song. I decided to challenge the system a bit and entered "Thomas Newman" (a composer who writes mainly movie scores).

In a few moments, the site had set up my "Thomas Newman" radio station, and added new-agey artists, Yuri Sazonoff. I now had an opportunity to "guide" the system, telling them that this selection wasn't quite what I had in mind, that I really didn't like it at all - never play it again, or that I just wondered why that particular song was chosen, among other options.

Curious about the "why," I selected that option and was told it was chosen because "it features new age influences, electronica influences, use of modal harmonies, subtle use of noise effect and thin orchestration."

Well that wasn't quite what I had in mind. I was thinking more about movie-type music. My option now would be to instruct the system to not play that type of song, and keep refining my selections. Eventually, I would end up with a reasonable list of choices - and be introduced to many, many more artists in the same general genre that I enjoy. I could do this again and again, from a variety of starting points, and compile and share my playlists - even locate other fans of the same type of music.

For someone whose musical tastes run the gamut from bluegrass to Rammstein and beyond, this could be a (all puns intended) Epic undertaking.

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