I’M ON A WAVELENGTH FAR FROM HOME.
October 6th, 2008
Pandora is pretty much my best friend (sorry human friends). It’s always there for me, day or night. It doesn’t judge me when I have questionable taste (so what I like The Fray? Sue me). It never needs to be picked up from LAX during rush hour. And most importantly, it knows me and knows what I like and is constantly giving me little gifts, some I don’t like but most I love. The creator of my bff, Tim Westergren, spoke at USC this past Friday and Bobby and I were like little kids with excitment. He gave a great talk with a lot of details and advice about venture capital, but what really stuck with me was how fascinating the whole concept is.
Westergen (a musician who went to Stanford) started the company with two friends, one of whom created the algorithm for Pandora in one night. Basically how it works is like this: a team of 50 trained musical theorists listens to each and every song a few times, and codes them on a bunch of different aspects, and the formula then scores each song which is how the algorithm identifies which tracks are musically similar. So when you punch in your favorite band, you will get one song by that band, and then a string of songs each similar to the last one played, so the string mutates a little with each track selected. The best part is, while you will probably get a lot of bands you already know and love, every once in a while you get to hear a new band you have never heard of. I could probably write a 6,000 word essay on this topic but I will spare you the tedium.
Check out Bobby’s blog for a cross-reference. WWW.THEHUNDREDS.COM
Entry Filed under: FYI
