Learn Me, Learn My Music
I mentioned briefly in my last post how the social network MySpace has played a huge role in connecting people to their favorite indie bands. By now I’m sure everyone knows about MySpace. Launched in 1998, MySpace music helped hundreds of artists get their start. Today most recording artists have their own page, and people are being “discovered” for many different reasons. My recent favorites are long-time MySpace celebrity Tila Tequila being picked up by VH1 for a reality show (Shot at Love) and amateur video maker Paul Brogan whose Super Bowl Rap was shown during the big game at no cost to him. Overridden with already popular musicians (current top indie artists being the Ying Yang Twins, explain that one to me), the original hope of having your music site discovered on MySpace is one in a few million, literally. Another complaint I have of MySpace music is to find a band, the exact name needs to be known, making it difficult to come across something new.
A different way to discover new music is here. Many new sites are being made to find music not by only by popularity or genre, but by learning the user’s music styles and moods. Pandora.com, “the most comprehensive analysis of music ever”, allows me to discover new bands (or at least new to me) by listening to what I like, and letting the site do the rest. Here I am able to bookmark my favorite artists and songs and taken from these are the individual beats, harmonies, lyrics and rhythms that can be analyzed as to pick a similar song with potential for my liking. I can rate the songs presented to me in play list form and with continued use the system “knows” what I will enjoy. Like MySpace, each featured artist has a profile page so I can learn more about who I am listening to.
Musicovery.com works similarly to Pandora.com in that it will create a play list for you, but can be organized in a couple different ways. First you can select the genre, a feature I am not too found of because I have difficulties classifying my music that way. From there, the listener can use their mood, energy level (tempo), or previously stored selections for the system to choose to play. It can be a little difficult to determine what your mood is from the four choices (energetic, dark, calm, and positive) thought you have grey area between to guess by. Also, there are settings for “hits, nonhits, and discovery”, another organization of music I have trouble determining for each song. Different colors are used to indicated moods and the weblike structure makes the site visually appealing.
These are just two examples of many sites helping people discover music in new ways. Technology that is able to learn and relate to the user is making it easier to experience all that today’s artist have to offer.
jburas said,
February 14, 2008 at 10:19 am
I absolutely love Pandora. The best part is that you can rate the song you listen to to help guide the website when selecting certain artists. Have you heard of PureVolume? The downside, like MySpace, is that you have to know the name of the band you’re looking for. On the upside it’s a great place for new talent to distribute their music without fees or a large following.
joshj said,
February 14, 2008 at 10:55 am
Thanks for the heads up about Musicovery. Searching by mood is a cool feature. In Pandora, I always have to think of my mood, then an artist that matches. It’s cool to bypass that step.
acensky said,
February 14, 2008 at 12:05 pm
I use Pandora as well, to discover new musicians. I love that site! One thing though… I wish you could list several of your favorite artists, and then have it create a radio station from that – as opposed to just one artist. Perhaps it has this feature, and I just haven’t found it?
Also, it sounds like musicovery.com would serve that function better. I’ve never used it before – but I’ll give it a try.