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Create Your Own Radio Station

Based On Artists or Songs



I just discovered Pandora by The Music Genome Project
. Create your own radio stations based on an artist or a single song!
Such a wonderful idea and fun discovery! Super easy, good sound, I can't believe I didn't know about this before.

Okay, one bummer, I love The Flaming Lips and I tried to create a station based on their music and got a pop-up window explaining why they weren't playing their songs. Like everything else, legal clearance, rights to music, etc are involved so you may not find absolutely everything you want.

I just registered free in about 30 seconds and in minutes created my own radio stations based on my liking the music and voices of Aimee Mann and the late Jeff Buckley. You can also search for other people's stations.

You cannot rewind or replay these songs, but I'm not using them for anything other than my listening pleasure. Hee hee.

Very cool! Below is a screen grab of what the interface looks like.



Above: It took me two seconds to create an Aimee Mann based (or inspired) radio station



Above: And another i second to add a Jeff Buckley inspired radio station

Below is how they describe it on their site:

When was the last time you fell in love with a new artist or song?

At Pandora Media™, we have a single mission: To help you discover new music you'll love.

To understand just how we do this, and why we think we do it really, really well, you need to know about the Music Genome Project™.

For almost seven years now, we have been hard at work on the Music Genome Project. It's the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken. Together our team of fifty musician-analysts have been listening to music, one song at a time, studying and collecting literally hundreds of musical details on every song. It takes 20-30 minutes per song to capture all of the little details that give each recording its magical sound - melody, harmony, instrumentation, rhythm, vocals, lyrics ... and more - close to 400 attributes! We continue this work every day to keep up with the incredible flow of great new music coming from studios, stadiums and garages around the country.

We've now created an interface to make this available to music lovers so they could use this musical 'connective-tissue' to discover new music based on songs or artists they already know.

Pandora™ is the doorway to this vast trove of musical information. With Pandora you can explore to your heart's content. Just drop the name of one of your favorite songs or artists into Pandora and let the Genome Project go. It will quickly scan its entire world of analyzed music, almost a century of popular recordings - new and old, well known and completely obscure - to find songs with interesting musical similarities to your choice. Then sit back and enjoy as it creates a listening experience full of current and soon-to-be favorite songs for you.

You can create as many "stations" as you want. And you can even refine them. If it's not quite right you can tell it more and it will get better for you.


Above: what I created in about 2 minutes

The Music Genome Project
was founded by musicians and music-lovers. We believe in the value of music and have a profound respect for those who create it. We like all kinds of music, from the most obtuse bebop, to the most tripped-out drum n bass, to the simplest catchy pop tune. Our mission is to help YOU connect with the music YOU like.

We hope you enjoy the experience!

How Exactly Does It work?

About The Music Genome Project™

We believe every individual has unique musical tastes, and that music discovery tools need to have a rich understanding of music to account for this diversity. That's why Pandora's music discovery services are based on The Music Genome Project™, the most sophisticated taxonomy of musical information ever collected. It represents years of analysis by our trained team of musicologists, and spans sixty years of music.

Each song in the Music Genome Project is analyzed using up to 400 distinct musical characteristics by a trained music analyst. These attributes capture not only the musical identity of a song, but also the many significant qualities that are relevant to understanding the musical preferences of listeners. The typical music analyst working on the Music Genome Project has a four-year degree in music theory, composition or performance, has passed through a selective screening process and has completed intensive training in the Music Genome's rigorous and precise methodology and procedures. To qualify for the work, analysts must have a firm grounding in music theory, including familiarity with a wide range of styles and sounds. All analysis is done on location.

The Music Genome Project's database
is built using a methodology that includes the use of precisely defined terminology, a consistent frame of reference, redundant analysis, and ongoing quality control to ensure that data integrity remains reliably high. Pandora does not use machine-listening or other forms of automated data extraction.

The Music Genome Project is updated on a continual basis with the latest releases, emerging artists, and an ever-deepening collection of catalogue titles.

By building products that utilize the wealth of musicological information stored in the Music Genome Project™, our technology can be highly responsive to each individual, and make it easy for music lovers to find new songs and artists they will like.

My opinion not good enough for you? Well then...Here's what the NY Times Had To Say About It:



The New York Times - Technology

nytimes_masthead.jpg A Radio Station Just for you
by Wilson Rothman

March 29, 2007

Now that the free ad-supported service has been operational for 15 months, it can use the behavioral data of its six million listeners to add a new layer of suggestion. For instance, even if, on paper, the musicologists think it logical to pair a song by the "American Idol" superstar Clay Aiken with one by the Canadian folk balladeer Ron Sexsmith, several hundred listeners may give the juxtaposition a vote of no confidence. Tim Westergren, a Pandora co-founder, says the database now contains half a billion useful points of "contextual feedback."

Great Use of a Website To Promote A Book




Author Miranda July has created a charming interactive site to promote her latest book. It moves quickly and is good for a giggle. Great use of the web to sell another medium.

I could post a few stills, but they don't do it justice. Go to the site yourself and click away!

Miranda July is a filmmaker, performing artist and writer. She grew up in Berkeley, California where she began her career by writing plays and staging them at the local punk club. July’s videos, performances, and web-based projects have been presented at sites such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and in the 2002 and 2004 Whitney Biennials.

Her short fiction has been published in The Paris Review, Zoetrope All-Story, and The New Yorker, and a collection of stories is forthcoming from Scribner in spring 2007. July created the participatory website, learningtoloveyoumore, with artist Harrell Fletcher and a companion book will be published by Prestel in fall 2007. She wrote, directed and starred in her first feature-length film, Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005), which won a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival and four prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, including the Camera d’Or. July is currently working on a new performance. She lives in Los Angeles.

http://noonebelongsheremorethanyou.com

Modern Sanctuary in Czech Republic: St. Bartholomew


Above: St. Bartholomew's Church exterior

Working with designer Jakub Berdych under the Qubus Studio banner, the interior of St. Bartholomew’s Church features Verner Panton chairs customized with a punched-out crucifix, Persian rugs and chandeliers of rough-cut crystal.





An absolutely stunning combination of old and new: St. Bartholomew’s Church by Maxim Velcovsky

More Carpet Artistry: Meet Reuber & Henning




I've posted some stories on rugs and rug designers (see previous post on Amazed, Ltd) that are nothing short of art. And yet, here's another!

In January, the first Reuber Henning Collection 2007 was presented at [d3] Design Talents IMM Cologne.

Meet Reuber & Henning.

above:Franziska Henning & Thorsten Reuber

The following is reprinted from their website:
TRIM DOWN TO THE ESSENTIALS: BEAUTIFUL, GOOD RUGS

We come from two different worlds: Franziska Henning studied painting and has been designing artistic rugs for several years. (www.galerie-roehr-ripken.de)

Thorsten Reuber learned something about marketing and sales in the music and new media business.

Once he had caught her infectious passion for the beauty of color and material, it was only natural for them to decide to join forces and create beautiful rugs together: Reuber Henning was born.

Franziska Henning calls her carpets "Poetic Images" - images that "have been inspired by a wide variety of regions, periods and moods."
The designs of our first collection are partly based on German 19th-century silhouette cutouts and traditional Japanese woodcuts.



Our rugs are knotted from fine Himalaya wool and chinese silk following ancient Tibetan handicraft traditions.

We want to create rugs that belong to people, beautiful rugs in the very best quality, which will keep creating a special atmosphere a whole life long, and whose beauty and character only grow stronger with the passing years.


We are newcomers. We want to develop further, make lots of new things and lots of things better - please join us and give us your suggestions and ideas!

Franziska Henning & Thorsten Reuber




Reuber Henning: This is where Franziska Henning, Maker of artistic carpets, and Thorsten Reuber, a Marketing and Sales Manager, join forces: A Label for aesthetical, clear, natural, graphical, poetical, for - beautiful rugs!

*High quality materials, handcrafted under fair conditions
*In all sizes and colours
*Available at selected retail, and here on www.reuberhenning.com

Erica Wakerly Fabrics And Wallpaper - Young Designer 2007



ERICA WAKERLY has been named as 'Young Designer 2007' at the Homes and Gardens Classic Design Awards. The award was presented at the Victoria & Albert museum, London, for wallpaper Collection 01.

Wallpaper designs:






Below: Close-up of houses wallpaper



ERICA WAKERLY's printed blinds and Japanese screens have been launched in collaboration with Eclectics at the Design Interiors show in Birmingham, including 'SPIRAL' and two new designs, 'HOOP' and 'BANGLE'. For more information please contact Eclectics t.01843 608789.

ERICA graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2005 (MA Printed Textiles), specialising in surface design for interiors. Her designs are aesthetically innovative, exploring unconventional motifs and ideas of contrast through a combination of the hand drawn and graphic line. Her background in illustration and graphic design has provided her with a unique outlook on print design, with a degree in illustration from the University of Brighton. During her time at the RCA she was awarded 1st prize in the Graham & Brown Wallpaper Design competition, and joint 1st prize for the Dorma Textile Design award.

Printed fabrics:




Below: close-up of her homes fabric


Alongside designing print for wallpaper and textiles, ERICA also works on a variety of freelance design projects and commissions.

Illustrations:







ERICA WAKERLY Collection 01 was launched in 2006, at ICFF, New York and at 100% Design in London, for which she was awarded the 100% Design Bursary, and shortlisted for the 100% Blueprint best newcomer award.

You can buy these fabulous wallpapers and fabrics by clicking here.

Funky Find of The Week: Want & Need Water Glasses


The Want/Need glass

It's a piece of art that makes a statement AND it's a functional drinking glass (as long as you don't fill it above the 'need' line). Helping you to curb your waste, each glass is hand signed and numbered. And only $24 a piece. Available in clear of 'foamed'.

Just click on the pic above and you'll be given more information and the option to order.

From Alesina design.

Win a Wii, eh? Canadian Sweeps for Artsy Wii




Lucky Canadians!
Nintendo in association with Magic Pony has the coolest giveaway but it's available to Canada residents only. Six different Wii players designed by Canadian artists will be given away in this sweepstakes. Four of the Wiis are visible below, the other two will be by mystery artists.

If you're eligible, enter the sweepstakes by clicking here.


Above: Gary Taxali's Wii

Above: Hoi-An Tang's Wii

Above: Illscarlet's Wii

Above: Udon's Wii

To read more about it and to enter the sweepstakes, click here.

By - A New Store That's Designed To Feel Like A Home




Mixing commerce with domesticity, three Italian companies — Boffi (kitchens and baths), Porro (tables, chairs and case goods) and Living Divani (mostly upholstered furniture) — have joined forces in By, a newly opened retail space at 142 Greene Street that looks less like a showroom than a sophisticated loft. “I didn’t want to sell a catalog image,” explains Piero Lissoni, the prolific Milan designer who is also the art director for all three companies. To that end, Lissoni mixed antiques and art with the companies’ products, and used glass partitions instead of walls to maximize light and space, which he calls “the real qualities of luxury.” Too bad the kitchen and bathroom don’t actually function, or we’d move right in.

Click on the link below for a video tour of the retail establishment that feels more like a loft than a shop.

permalink to video

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