Radio Days · 26 October, 03:06 PM
The NYT had a really interesting article on Pandora.com, specifically on the categorization process used by the Music Genome Project. It’s pretty interesting to read a bit about the process. I’ve been fascinated by Pandora for a year or so. Like all recommendation systems, the promise is so tantalizing: what if there was a way to predict and recommend music in a really reliable way?
The reality is somewhat less rosy, as the story points out. Pandora and Music Genome does really well at building a taxonomy for music, particularly popular music. It does less well at context. The issue for me isn’t so much whether Journey is “similar” to Jackson Browne – musically, that’s probably true. But context, particularly lyrically. Take Pink’s So What for instance. Is that song about “electronica influences”, “punk influences”, “mild rhythmic syncopation”, “a twelve-eight time signature”, etc., or is it a song about going out and getting drunk at the end of a bad relationship? Or, ask yourself how Metallica and The Dubliners are related? (they both have covered Whiskey In the Jar).
Recommendations can work on more than one axis. But what I’ve discovered about Pandora is that while there are those voting buttons, it is like the radio: sometimes it’s more gratifying to just change the channel or switch it off entirely.
— Gordon Weakliem
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