Automated Playlists, Created from a “Music Genome”

Linta, my sister, sends me this:

On January 6, 2000 a group of musicians and music-loving technologists came together with the idea of creating the most comprehensive analysis of music ever.

Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or “genes” into a very large Music Genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song – everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony…

Over the past 5 years, we’ve carefully listened to the songs of over 10,000 different artists – ranging from popular to obscure – and analyzed the musical qualities of each song one attribute at a time.

Here’s Pandora’s playlist made off of The Clash’s Magnificent Seven.

The Call Up, The Clash

Children of the Revolution, the Violent Femmes (“because it features electric rock instrumentation, the subtle use of vocal harmony, minor key tonality, electric pianos and prominent percussion.”)

Medicine Man, Barclay James Harvest (“because if features electric rock instrumentation, a subtle use of vocal harmony, extensive vamping, minor key tonality and prominent percussion.”)

Argument, Fugazi

Five to One, The Doors

Tired and Test, Brucce Cockburn

Hell or High Water, Johnny Dowd

Steppenwolf, Hawkwind

Black Dove, Beehive and the Barracudas

The Devil Made Me Do it, Voodoo Glow Skulls

Overpowered by Funk, The Clash