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Oct 04
2007
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Pandora's Box...Posted by Gabe Knipp in Tim Westergren, Music Genome Project, music, art |
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I posted a book review for the site a couple days ago, mentioning how it's tough when people ask you about a book to read...or for that matter band to listen to or movie to watch. These are such personal things, I really have a hard time givingadvice without getting examples of what the questioner likes to read.
A day or two later I was writing a story and wanted to listen to some melancholy music for a rather depressing scene. I queued up "Raining in Baltimore" by Counting Crows on my iTunes, but soon found I wanted more songs like it (I can't write a good scene in four minutes). So, I went to Pandora.com .
Pandora is the commercial front for the Music Genome Project -- a project envisioned by founder Tim Westergren to, essentially, map the "genome" of any given song. Tim, and a host of other people in the music industry, including 30-40 musicians themselves, "map" songs according to their "genome": like if a song has breathy vocals or an alto sax solo (yeah, it's pretty specific) those things get marked down. Traits come out of the genes, like "choral harmonies" or "mellow-rock instrumentation". These aren't the genes themselves, but the genes point to these traits.
Which made it possible for me to type in "Raining in Baltimore" and get a host of other sad, rambling piano tunes, which really helped me to write.
If you're like me, you understand the concept, but when you hear the songs just like the kind you were looking for, you still think, "How'd they do that?
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Gabe, I'm glad someone posted about pandora.com... it really is a cool site... It's also a great way to find some new artists. Some of my favorite artist were discovered on pandora.com.
