Thirty Three Jones | Desktop Site
This post actually has nothing to do with Three 6 Mafia, sorry. I just felt like putting that picture up today.
I picked up a copy of this month's British GQ yesterday, primarily to read a five page interview with Lindsay Lohan analyzing the current state of her breasts, and came across an article in the magazine about the site Pandora.com. The site has been up since December, yet this is the first time I've heard of it.
The site, essentially an internet-based radio station, is built on The Music Genome Project. The MGP uses a mathematical forumal to analyze thousands of songs and then finds similar songs, based on comparable rhythms, harmonies, regional origin, and in the case of hip hop, the rapping style of the artist. Pandora asks you for the name of an artist, or a specific song, and puts together a playlist of what it determines to be musically similar.
Fans of the Music Genome Project say that the selection process allows listeners to hear music they would not normally be exposed to, because selections are not based on sales just musical similarities. Critics say that the math used to determine compatibility between songs and artists does not work, because it can't pick up on a lot of subtleties.
I spent about an hour playing around with the site and there were some issues with the math. I set up a "Jay-Z" station, and the first song that came up was from Cam'ron. Clearly, the algorithm behind the site is not clever enough to pick up on the latest hip hop beefs. I then set up a station for Lord Jamar and ended up getting a bunch of rappers I've never heard of, who were definitely not rapping about the Nation of Gods and Earths. The beats and the rhyming styles were similar to Lord Jamar, though, so in its own way the selection process does work. The site is free, and its selections let me hear a few underground artists that I wouldn't normally listen to (specifically, Murs). If you're not from the U.S., you may be restricted from using the site. Try creating an account and enter in a U.S. address if you have problems.
Link to pandora.com
In other news, yesterday the EBC All Star game was held at the Madison Square Garden. Joe Budden, Jae Millz, Ne-Yo and even Mysonne put on jerseys and played in the game. You can read more about it here.
Finally, to all my Canadian peoples, Nick Catchdubs is looking for a pair of Steve Nash Air Maxes which were released only in Canada. If you can hook him up (he'll pay you), hit him up here.
7/24/2006 10:36:26 AM posted by Fresh