![]() ![]() That was Phase One, which took six years to finesse. Westergren’s idea was simple: Compile hundreds of thousands of songs into a gigantic database that can match those you love with structurally similar tracks, thereby creating the ultimate music-recommending device. Pandora’s goal is to introduce these people to new music based on what they already like, and while it’s too early to draw conclusions, the strong initial response to Pandora’s unique product suggests its effort, or something similar, could help transform a recording industry battered by illegal downloading, flagging CD sales, and listener ennui. As chief strategy officer of Pandora Media, a company he created to oversee the project, Westergren is attempting no less than an egalitarian revolution in music marketing - one he believes can reach a vast, neglected cadre of fans who love music but have aged out of the crate-digging demographic, or are uninspired by MTV. Some are genre-specific - hip-hop, for example, has no need of the jazz gene that counts improvised sax licks. In fact, the four genres, or “genomes,” these music analysts have scrutinized to date - jazz, hip-hop/electronic, rock/pop/country, and world music - contain a total of about four hundred genes. There are genes for handclaps, turntable scratches, and organ solos - times 235. “Lose Yourself” thus has a gene describing whether the bass is played ostinato or as a riff, and another for whether the kick drum sound is tight or booming. “It’s kind of like your building blocks - and we think of this as the same thing for music.” “Genes collectively make a person tall or short, black or white, fast or slow, with freckles or not,” Westergren says. Founded by Stanford alum Tim Westergren, a pianist and former film composer, the Oakland-based project breaks down songs according to their component traits, or genes, just as the Human Genome Project has mapped nature’s blueprints. Welcome to the Music Genome Project, the most awesomely and exhaustively nerdy cataloguing endeavor in pop-music history. The operations guy: Once the humans have finishedĬracking a track, Etienne Handman says, whats actually.The tech chief: The real business opportunity, TomĬonrad says, is simply to help people listen.Was a crucial part of Pandoras business model. Within his own demographic aging music lovers The CEO: Joe Kennedy realized that reaching people.The buyer: Michael Zapruder has the best job ever.The Music Genome Project after struggling for years to The founder: Stanford alumnus Tim Westergren launched. ![]() Pandora employees cut loose at one of their weekly jam.Today’s specimen: Eminem’s rap anthem “Lose Yourself.” Today’s mission: crack all 235 of the song’s genes. Today’s lab team: one drummer, two saxophonists, two guitarists, one bassist, two pianists, one violinist. ![]()
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