I've been rocking out to Pandora Radio after work for the past few weeks. Mugs introduced me to this brilliant musical service a short while ago, and I think I'm hooked. Essentially you create a personalized radio station (or more than one if you wish) by selecting songs/bands that you like. The site then begins playing reasonably high quality streams of sons which are musically related to your choices. You can improve the fit by your response to songs, such as a simple thumbs up or down, skipping, or selecting more specific choices from a pop-up list.
All of this is based on the Music Genome Project which set out to analyze specific musical qualities of individual songs and artists and find correlations. I think the results are pretty impressive so far considering the number of sweet new music I've discovered already, as well as the raft of songs that I enjoy but have already heard. Other than Netflix, this is one of the best adaptive recommendation systems I've ever used.
Functionally, the site is fantastic as well. It's not the prettiest or most innovative designs, but the music loads quickly and animations are snappy and useful. It's one of the faster Flash-based sites I've used, too.
So pardon me while I continue listening...
All of this is based on the Music Genome Project which set out to analyze specific musical qualities of individual songs and artists and find correlations. I think the results are pretty impressive so far considering the number of sweet new music I've discovered already, as well as the raft of songs that I enjoy but have already heard. Other than Netflix, this is one of the best adaptive recommendation systems I've ever used.
Functionally, the site is fantastic as well. It's not the prettiest or most innovative designs, but the music loads quickly and animations are snappy and useful. It's one of the faster Flash-based sites I've used, too.
So pardon me while I continue listening...