Music Recommendation Engines Compared 126
An anonymous reader writes "The music recommendation/music discovery space seems to be heating up this year. Two big recent features on music recommendation engines: ExtremeTech has a round-up and reviews of eight leading services. Of the eight, Last.fm emerges as the winner: "Last.fm is by far the best out there, possessing a huge library of music, a great community, and a recommendation feature that will blow you away." Meanwhile, Pitchforkmedia.com just ran an in-depth feature about the hows and whys of music recommendation software, that tells the story going back to the '90s, and interviews people at Last.fm, Pandora, MusicIP, and the startup Echo Nest: '"Our hope is to answer every possible question about music that ever existed. If we can pull that off, then I think we're doing very well," says [Brian] Whitman.'"
I've tried lastfm and Pandora (Score:5, Informative)
I've tried the two top recommended music recommend-ers: last.fm, and Pandora. Love them both.
I had to futz with the last.fm ergonomics, and find if I haven't used it in a while, I have to re-figure some of the stuff out. I find that annoying. But, it has great features, great recommendations, and features.
Pandora, I found to be easier to use, simpler and more elegant in design. I especially like the "sharing" of your personal stations, and love the "most popular" station feature. This is a great site, and a great experience.
For Pandora, though they've talked about fixing it, and I don't know where they are on this, I was disappointed to not be able to create a Classical Music station. That's a pretty big negative for me.
(Also, if you try Pandora, an odd behavior: if you click the "Minimize" button in the Pandora window (not the browser minimizer), it pops out into its own independent window. That's hardly "minimizing", though I find it convenient.)
And, while these may be free services, they've ended up costing me a small fortune. I've been exposed to so much cool music I'd not heard, I've ended up buying about 20 CDs I'd never have otherwise bought.
Re:I've tried lastfm and Pandora (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I've tried lastfm and Pandora (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I've tried lastfm and Pandora (Score:2)
stuff that I don't like. It doesn't make any sense.
Stuck in the Indy Shuffle with Pandora (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: Progarchives (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Stuck in the Indy Shuffle with Pandora (Score:5, Interesting)
It is true that if your taste is for a niche genre then it won't be too useful, but if you're in that position then you probably know better than any software what you ought to listen to next!
Re:Stuck in the Indy Shuffle with Pandora (Score:3, Insightful)
My one gripe is that it pulls multiple similar songs -- I have one station with all my likes tossed together, and it always plays fou or five dancehall songs followed by four or five hair metal songs followed by.... I suppose it's some sort of optimizat
Re:Stuck in the Indy Shuffle with Pandora (Score:2)
Re:Stuck in the Indy Shuffle with Pandora (Score:1)
Re:Stuck in the Indy Shuffle with Pandora (Score:1)
This is based on comments from founder Tim Westergren, who recently toured the country having little "town hall" sessions with Pandora users. I attended in Chicago, where about 50-75 folks turned up to hear the story of Pandora, ask questions, and offer suggestions.
Sparks (Score:2)
Re:Stuck in the Indy Shuffle with Pandora (Score:2)
e.g. http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh1426048 [pandora.com]
Last.pm player too buggy (Score:2)
In addition, the fact that you are required to install software, as opposed to Pandora which uses flash, creates an obstacle for many people who would like to use it at work, but need prior approval before installing applications.
Re:Last.pm player too buggy (Score:1)
Re:Last.pm player too buggy (Score:1)
But can you answer this one? (Score:4, Funny)
Or rather, will they actually recommend music? Or just the hypecrap?
Re:But can you answer this one? (Score:4, Funny)
We found no entries in our database for the artist 'hypecrap'. May we suggest Mariah Carey, Hoobastank, or Celine Dion?
Re:But can you answer this one? (Score:5, Informative)
You obviously aren't familliar with the sites recommended, Pandora and Last.fm ... the trick with these services is that you decide what you listen to (for example, in Last.fm's case, you can listen to similar artists of, for example, Britney Spears - they will probably serve you a nice mixture of Christina, Destiny's Child, Shakira, etc... they do this based on data mining, which only works if you have a subscriber base as large as Last.fm... one point which Pandora seems to lack a bit (chicken or the egg problem)
And well, as far as I'm concerned, Last.fm's radio service is pretty high quality.. they offer you an option to subscribe to, among other things, get a guarantee for being able to listen to a radio station (if a server is full, a non-subscriber gets kicked off to make place for you)...
You should try it out... everyone who enjoys music recommendations and discovering new music will like these services...
Re:But can you answer this one? (Score:2)
Sorry, but Pandora doesn't make reccomendations based on data mining. They have employees hand tag their music library based on several different categories and then make the matches based off the tags.
Ok, my bad.. I'm not familliar with Pandora but based on the article I assumed it worked similar to last.fm..
Pandora and The Music Genome Project (Score:2)
Well, how wrong you were! In fact, that's the strength of Pandora that it does not recommend you based on what 'others' are listening. Remember, mob is always stupid. Thats why Pandora wins over last.fm by miles.
Check this out [pandora.com] for more information. And please, read some more before bashing Pandora - its a little heaven on the net when it comes to music.
Re:Pandora and The Music Genome Project (Score:2)
Hey hey, I did not bash for one second... I merely assumed Pandora worked similar to lastfm, which was wrong...
So I assume Pandora vs Last.fm could be considered like Yahoo's Directory vs Google ? :-)
Re:Pandora and The Music Genome Project (Score:2)
Re:But can you answer this one? (Score:1)
Re:But can you answer this one? (Score:2)
Why do people type that way?
.. too much msn, i guess :)
Re:But can you answer this one? (Score:2)
Simple ... customer demand. To a lot of listeners, that's what they want to hear. To them, it's not bad, overhyped crap. They want to listen to top-40, or pop stations, and listen to what everyone else is listening to, and what's cool.
It's worse than them not knowing better, they really do believe that is the kind of music they like, and they really pre
tried and true (Score:1)
Merlin (Score:2)
Re:Merlin (Score:2)
Re:Merlin (Score:1)
How about two Merlins in a Ford Mustang?
I'm partial to a Hispano in a Jenny, or a Ferrari in a Dino 156 myself.
. . . answer every possible question about music that ever existed. .
You hint at the fundamental question, don't you?
"What is music?"
KFG
Level 42 is the answer... (Score:1)
Brian, repeat after me, "correctness before speed."
pitchfork + oink (Score:1)
Re:pitchfork + oink (Score:2)
Features, Features, Features (Score:1, Funny)
That's just a feature. It obviously does that beacuse Megadeth kicks ass.
My review.. (Score:5, Funny)
An inverse metric would work nicely for ranking a video recommendation service.
Re:My review.. (Score:1)
If they do, you won't have to.
KFG
I'll try one but... (Score:1)
I love last.fm (Score:2)
Independent music recommendation services? (Score:4, Interesting)
What I'm looking for is a site where I can enter or select names of bands or songs that I like, and get independent music recommended to me. You like Alanis Morisette? Try Jen Pitch. That sort of thing. Does anybody know of such sites?
By the way: the example above is just an association I know from the top of my head; I'm not very much into the kind of music at all.
Re:Independent music recommendation services? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Independent music recommendation services? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Independent music recommendation services? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:RIAA Radar! (Score:1)
Re:Independent music recommendation services? (Score:1)
Re:Independent music recommendation services? (Score:1)
Re:Independent music recommendation services? (Score:1)
Hot Shot City is particulary good.
Last.fm is nice (Score:2, Informative)
Slashdotted my Music (Score:4, Funny)
Curse you!
iTunes playlists (Score:1)
Re:iTunes playlists (Score:2)
Bottom right corner of the iTunes interface has a button that opens the 'mini-store'. It does exactly what you describe, except you don't have to send them the playlist: they read it automatically.
Re:iTunes playlists (Score:1)
Re:iTunes playlists (Score:2)
Re:iTunes playlists (Score:3, Informative)
Re:iTunes playlists (Score:2)
Last.fm's recommendations are based on the music you listen to. You just install the audioscrobber plugin for your media player (or, in my case, enter your login info in amaroK), and it submits your listening habits to last.fm. Pretty cool IMO.
Re:iTunes playlists (Score:3, Interesting)
I think they got rid of the direct upload feature because it was extremely slow (the iTunes XML file is huge, but can be highly compressed) and they now have a client - Mobster [musicmobs.com] - which will upload your stats. I'm not sure if Mobster allows you to upload just one playlist in place of your library. You can upload
tunebounce.com (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:iTunes playlists (Score:1)
Clinko (Score:3, Interesting)
In fact, I wrote it
Re:Clinko (Score:2, Funny)
.
.
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5.Mariah Carey
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=187227&cid=15
KFG
Last.fm is opensource (Score:2, Informative)
I like using Last.fm because it's player is open-source and available for both Linux and WinXP. For me, that's critical, because I dualboot my PC between those two OSs, and have my music on a separate partition that's accessible by both.
I'm not sure if that's the case with the other services, but I've been happy with Last.fm
Re:MusicStrands has an open source API (Score:1)
I've not used it yet, but they say it's the same API that the entire MusicStrands service is based on.
http://www.musicstrands.com/openstrands/overview.v m [musicstrands.com]
Hello from Last.fm (Score:5, Informative)
The KDE player Amarok [kde.org] is getting increasingly popular, which is nice to see. I use it myself; the built in support means no plugin is required. The next version of amarok adds lots more last.fm integration too.
Coming up - we'll be running a beta test of a fairly major update to last.fm towards the end of june, and going live with the new version 1st July.
And a random stat: we currently recieve on average 104 submissions per second from audioscrobbler plugins.
Re:Hello from Last.fm (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Hello from Last.fm (Score:2)
Re:Hello from Last.fm (Score:2)
Other Players/iTunes and WMplayer
Re:Hello from Last.fm (Score:1)
Willing to leak any details about what sorts of things are coming? I gotta get all prepared on how to help beta test it, ya know.
(And will us auto-mods there get some more cool new abilities? I feel so... useless now with my orange symbol that only means I can play with artist images)
Biz Model..? (Score:3, Interesting)
From what I see I download a player where I can play commercial music of the sort I like for free, with CD quality and no ads...
There are Google Ads on the site, but I can just not go on the site and play free music forever... The player doesn't seem to contain ad/spy ware.
Where's the "catch"
Shhh (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Biz Model..? (Score:1)
Re:Biz Model..? (Score:1)
Re:Biz Model..? (Score:1)
Pandora also has a subscriber service, which offers a few insider-ish advantages to its users for fairly cheap. But their real money comes from selling user data.
Anyone else amused? (Score:2)
Re:Anyone else amused? (Score:2)
Last.fm vs Pandora (Score:4, Interesting)
I'll start by saying that I'm a huge fan of Last.fm, and have been for years. I'm addicted to the place, and my music collection would be nothing without it. While Last.fm does have a feature where artists are automatically recommended to you, I rarely use it. It's the social aspect of Last.fm that sets it apart. The best way of getting recommendations is just simply asking for them [www.last.fm].
I've used Pandora a few times before, and was always disappointed with what it recomended. Results are mixed to say the least—it clearly works better for some types of music than others—and some of the recommendations can be, quite frankly, laughable.
Gnoosic (Score:2)
Don't forget the simpler Gnoosic [gnoosic.com], the music section of the Global Network of Dreams.
Every Last Question (Score:5, Funny)
>Our hope is to answer every possible question about music that ever existed. If we can pull that off, then I think we're doing very well,
What is the brand of guitar string that you can hear break in the mono lp version of "Help Me, Rhonda"?Sorry (Score:3, Funny)
MusicIP MusicMagicMixer, Launchcast (Score:2, Interesting)
Last.fm "the best"? (Score:2)
Re:Last.fm "the best"? (Score:2)
PF ST (Score:1)
Music Reco Downloads? (Score:2)
My biggest problem is that I love discovering new music but when I find something I like I always have to write it down and then go hunting for it on Soul
Re:Music Reco Downloads? (Score:2)
No, there's plenty out there that I like, unfortunately much of it is electronic music that I cannot purchase except in vinyl format, which is useless since I don't have a turntable. Thus I end up downloading (pirating if you will) all of my music. Aside from that, i'm too much of a cheapass to make myself pay for it.
iRATE (Score:3, Informative)
I partially disagree with the conclusion. (Score:2)
Here's another one (Score:1)
A difference about this one is that it looks at the songs you've already played--not like last.fm which only looks at songs as you play them. Hence the recommendations are generated alot faster ---instant satisfaction...well assuming it works for you
tunebounce.com [tunebounce.com]
Why Last.fm and others fail the truly long tail (Score:3, Interesting)
This is bad because many of us have bought an album and realized we only liked a few tracks. Yet the big fans of that artist like all the songs, or different ones. Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity got lots of airplay, but the rest of the album is much slower and disco-y. Consequently, Last.fm is highly unlikely to recommend the artist and of course that song to listeners who missed it six years ago.
Last.fm thinks I should like lots of Radiohead, Coldplay, and The White Stripes because other users who listen to the same artists I do have also listened to those bands a lot. Well I only like a few songs from the first two and really dislike the last band. Too much whining in the vocals. If only Last.fm let me tell it the songs I like and the ones I don't. Then it could find users who also dislike the same music as I. Consequently, it would recommend just songs I'm probably going to like; certain Ska songs by Reel Big Fish and others, certain Rock/Swing by The Cherry Poppin' Daddies and The Brian Setzer Orchestra.
Then I don't have to skip through albums getting annoyed with how much of them I don't like because I'm not a huge Ska or Swing fan.
When I listen to Best of albums by Garth Brooks and Clint Black, along with select Shania Twain, and the Black Dog soundtrack, I should get song recommendations for Travis Tritt that only include the few tracks I'll probably like.
If Last.fm could increase their computing power per user by about 30x, I think it could be recommending all kinds of obscure hits and tracks that users would never think of otherwise and human community members couldn't think of either. After all, I like a bunch of hip-hop and techno too. In fact I have extremely varied musical interests, but probably most people do and they're too stuck in a few genres because there's too much chaff among the wheat to branch out and find the select songs they'll enjoy.
hype machine (Score:1)
http://hype.non-standard.net/ [non-standard.net]
this is the most genius piece of music recommendation I have seen. It uses like blogs to link (and play, download ) like music. Enter a band and find 10 blogs which contain similiar music. Its great.
Yays (Score:1)
It's good.
Pandora + Pandora's Jar?
Houpla!
What a bogus review of yahoo... (Score:1)
First off, they have one of the largest libraries available so, already it was a clear winner for me because of the selection.
No community? I get recommendations from friends "influencers" all the time and I can listen other users customized stations.
All main
Amigofish (Score:1)
There's a recent startup that has caught my eye, though, that I haven't seen mentioned in this discussion:
http://amigofish.com/ [amigofish.com]
FOAFING THE MUSIC: another music recommender (Score:1)
MusicIP - "Open Source/Open Data"... (Score:1)
You laugh, but that'd be the feature for me (Score:2)
Re:You laugh, but that'd be the feature for me (Score:2, Insightful)