Opening Pandora's Box
In response to Alan's assertion that within a user-preference network, one could simply...
Yes, a program like Pandora is conceived precisely to allow access to music not normally played on the radio or universally known (read: obscure) but to me the beauty of Pandora.com is its relative lack of regard for fads and other artificial, arbitrary, human forms of classification of art. Granted, it has to use some language of classification to run its algorithm, but in this case it limits the subjectivity by breaking things down into what presumably is a more basic and objective level of analysis, ie "features."
In this way, I get to listen to music that isn't weighed down by the baggage of broad musical classifications like "indie rock" or "emo" or "nu-metal." What do these terms mean anyway? If they have quantifiable qualities that turn me on or off to them, then that should be sorted out by my feature-based preferences that I clue Pandora in on. I like not having my musical selections dictated by well worn threads through the contemporary music scene. Each suggestion thus seems that much purer, and has the potential to break down barriers between musical castes that may have been imaginary to begin with.
"...divide each probability by the total popularity of the band in question, the Beatles quantity would be greatly diminished relative to the Children of Bodom quantity, and the preference-based Pandora would deliver us Opeth fans the truly similar Children of Bodom and not the merely popular Beatles."Maybe I'm not fully getting your method, Alan, but it seems that someone really into British bands from the 60s would be penalized for liking such a popular band. Dividing out the total popularity would advantage the more obscure bands of that genre, where someone could conceivably simply know that they generally like the Beatles and want to hear more songs of theirs.
Yes, a program like Pandora is conceived precisely to allow access to music not normally played on the radio or universally known (read: obscure) but to me the beauty of Pandora.com is its relative lack of regard for fads and other artificial, arbitrary, human forms of classification of art. Granted, it has to use some language of classification to run its algorithm, but in this case it limits the subjectivity by breaking things down into what presumably is a more basic and objective level of analysis, ie "features."
In this way, I get to listen to music that isn't weighed down by the baggage of broad musical classifications like "indie rock" or "emo" or "nu-metal." What do these terms mean anyway? If they have quantifiable qualities that turn me on or off to them, then that should be sorted out by my feature-based preferences that I clue Pandora in on. I like not having my musical selections dictated by well worn threads through the contemporary music scene. Each suggestion thus seems that much purer, and has the potential to break down barriers between musical castes that may have been imaginary to begin with.
