5 ms·

I realised recently that most media recommenders don't work for me because they are based on genre. If you like The Watchmen film, you're sure to like Marvel fi

I realised recently that most media recommenders don't work for me because they are based on genre. If you like The Watchmen film, you're sure to like Marvel films because they're also action, and based on comics. We see you listened to Pearl Jam a lot, you're going to get a kick out of Nirvana. That's just not how I work. I like _good_ stuff, I don't confine myself to genres, I'll go anywhere if it's half decent. I want a service that says hey, you listened to Benny Goodman's Sing Sing Sing, you should check out The Thirteenth Floor Elevators' first album. The only recommendation that kinda works for me is based on an aggregation of what other people listened a lot to. Sure on small data sets that is probably going to be genre biased, but on large sets it can start working and break out of that.

karmakaze 3y ago
I was about to say something similar, that associating by artist is too coarse. It should be at the song (or possibly album or artist+date) level.
jefc1111 3y ago
I am like this also. It's tricky though because I think people hear 'quality' in different ways. Some people focus on lyrics, some like cultural identity, some people are probably responding at a more 'primal' level, i.e. just to the pure energy / emotion. But I do think it is different for everybody and does bear some relation to the individual's level of musical awareness and how much time and effort they invest in cultivating their own taste. I once worked with someone who when asked "What kind of music are you into?" answered "I don't really listen to music". Shocking! The best way I have found to find new stuff is just to listen to lots and lots of music, and follow different leads. It's hardy a chore doing so!
- roydivision 3y ago
  "I don't really listen to music" == "I don't breathe much". Way back I had friends over, one of them was looking through my CD collection which was minimal at the time, maybe 60 CDs. "Wow, you have a lot of CDs, do you listen to all of them?"
  - turboponyy 3y ago
    > "I don't really listen to music" == "I don't breathe much". Could you elaborate? I definitely used to be a person who just didn't listen to music - I found it quite boring, really. I've since found genres that I like that I listen to on occasion, but definitely still not as frequently as the average person.
    - roydivision 3y ago
      This wasn’t meant as a judgement whatsoever. Others would say the same about, say football, which I just don’t relate to. The comment was relating my experience with music, it’s like I can barely live without it.
  - erellsworth 3y ago
    Fun fact: Jeff Bezos doesn't like music.
dieselgate 3y ago
That's why "quality" radio can be so powerful: it's not uncommon for DJs to curate a set based on "songs with the same musician" or "original song and remakes/samples from the original" and the like. Not that it's guaranteed to be "good" stuff but at least unique and more memorable in my experience
- jefc1111 3y ago
  Any recommendations? I listen to BBC 6 Music a lot. Tried various others but nothing really 'stuck'. Always fun to have a fly around on https://radio.garden https://radio.garden also. KEXP have some great performances on youtube, I should try listening to the radio station probably. Although saying that, neither 6 Music or KEXP (or others I have tried) seem to go quite obscure enough for me. i like pop / rock / indie but also experimental rock, lo-fi, noise, etc
  - grp 3y ago
    NTS does the job well for me: https://www.nts.live/ https://www.nts.live/
    - grgbrn 3y ago
      Seconded! I would highly recommend NTS. Their archive is great, dives into almost anything you can think of
      - jefc1111 3y ago
        Been listening for a couple of hours or so. Love it, cheers.
  - d--b 3y ago
    I used to listen to bbc 6 music a lot. These days I listen to fip.fr it’s a French national radio, that pans all genres, and is very well curated. There is no ads, and very few people talking.
  - roydivision 3y ago
d--b 3y ago
Came here to say this exactly. I like Mac Miller and Kendrick Lamar, but as far as hip hop goes these are the only two artists I enjoy listening to. In electronic music, I listen to Aphex Twin, which is pretty hardcord, but can’t really fathom anything else. My tastes are really clear cut, but not around artist similarity.
jug 3y ago
Yeah, a bare minimum for this is probably to give at _least_ two songs and not just one. What is "good" is still subjective but given a few more data points and the gist of those enjoying all those should also be able to better provide what else these users enjoy.

karmakaze 3y ago

I was about to say something similar, that associating by artist is too coarse. It should be at the song (or possibly album or artist+date) level.

jefc1111 3y ago

I am like this also. It's tricky though because I think people hear 'quality' in different ways. Some people focus on lyrics, some like cultural identity, some people are probably responding at a more 'primal' level, i.e. just to the pure energy / emotion. But I do think it is different for everybody and does bear some relation to the individual's level of musical awareness and how much time and effort they invest in cultivating their own taste. I once worked with someone who when asked "What kind of music are you into?" answered "I don't really listen to music". Shocking! The best way I have found to find new stuff is just to listen to lots and lots of music, and follow different leads. It's hardy a chore doing so!

roydivision 3y ago
"I don't really listen to music" == "I don't breathe much". Way back I had friends over, one of them was looking through my CD collection which was minimal at the time, maybe 60 CDs. "Wow, you have a lot of CDs, do you listen to all of them?"
- turboponyy 3y ago
  > "I don't really listen to music" == "I don't breathe much". Could you elaborate? I definitely used to be a person who just didn't listen to music - I found it quite boring, really. I've since found genres that I like that I listen to on occasion, but definitely still not as frequently as the average person.
  - roydivision 3y ago
    This wasn’t meant as a judgement whatsoever. Others would say the same about, say football, which I just don’t relate to. The comment was relating my experience with music, it’s like I can barely live without it.
- erellsworth 3y ago
  Fun fact: Jeff Bezos doesn't like music.

dieselgate 3y ago

That's why "quality" radio can be so powerful: it's not uncommon for DJs to curate a set based on "songs with the same musician" or "original song and remakes/samples from the original" and the like. Not that it's guaranteed to be "good" stuff but at least unique and more memorable in my experience

jefc1111 3y ago
Any recommendations? I listen to BBC 6 Music a lot. Tried various others but nothing really 'stuck'. Always fun to have a fly around on https://radio.garden https://radio.garden also. KEXP have some great performances on youtube, I should try listening to the radio station probably. Although saying that, neither 6 Music or KEXP (or others I have tried) seem to go quite obscure enough for me. i like pop / rock / indie but also experimental rock, lo-fi, noise, etc
- grp 3y ago
  NTS does the job well for me: https://www.nts.live/ https://www.nts.live/
  - grgbrn 3y ago
    Seconded! I would highly recommend NTS. Their archive is great, dives into almost anything you can think of
    - jefc1111 3y ago
      Been listening for a couple of hours or so. Love it, cheers.
- d--b 3y ago
  I used to listen to bbc 6 music a lot. These days I listen to fip.fr it’s a French national radio, that pans all genres, and is very well curated. There is no ads, and very few people talking.
- roydivision 3y ago

d--b 3y ago

Came here to say this exactly. I like Mac Miller and Kendrick Lamar, but as far as hip hop goes these are the only two artists I enjoy listening to. In electronic music, I listen to Aphex Twin, which is pretty hardcord, but can’t really fathom anything else. My tastes are really clear cut, but not around artist similarity.

jug 3y ago

Yeah, a bare minimum for this is probably to give at _least_ two songs and not just one. What is "good" is still subjective but given a few more data points and the gist of those enjoying all those should also be able to better provide what else these users enjoy.