Tue 11 Apr 2006
Here’s an MP3 of Pandora’s Box, my first piece of professional radio.
More to come (I got my second green light this week).
Tue 11 Apr 2006
Here’s an MP3 of Pandora’s Box, my first piece of professional radio.
More to come (I got my second green light this week).

April 11th, 2006 at 9:31 pm
Nice radio piece (for a rock snob).
There must be something in the air as the New Yorker has compelling amazing article on Muzak’s audio branding techniques, here’s a taste:
“Steven Pilker, a twenty-five-year-old audio architect—he had worked in a record store while in school at U.N.C. Charlotte and, when he graduated, was offered a job by a Muzak executive who had been a regular customer—asked me seven or eight questions, none of which had anything to do with music. (“When you’re not working, what do you like to do?” “If you could choose an actor / actress to star in your biographical movie, who would it be and why?”) A couple of weeks later, he sent me a six-song program, which contained nothing connected to what I think of as my main musical phenotype (“classic rock”); in fact, five of the six tracks were by artists I’d never heard of. Yet I liked all six very much, and later bought CDs by two of them (Sufjan Stevens and Jamie Lidell). Pilker’s selections aren’t definitive, of course; another audio architect surely could have had another take on my “brand.” But I was struck that Pilker, after spending very little time with me, had created an appealing musical program that was based on his sense of who I was, rather than on any direct examination of the music I actually listened to if left on my own.”
The rest of it’s here:
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060410fa_fact
April 12th, 2006 at 8:03 am
BLF,
Great article, thanks for the link.
FWIW, the original draft of the documentary included much more of the science of music matching and it’s implications on the music business (what does it mean, for example, if this software eventually includes all - or almost all - of the music in the world and also has the ability to match your tastes very accurately…including emotional data?)
One interview subject, Sandy Pearlman (the producer of The Blue Oyster Cult and The Clash’s Give Em Enough Rope who’s now a music futurist at McGill) says the recommendation engines are one of the last nails in the coffin for the music industry as it’s currently structured…