Music recommendation site listens to what you're listening to

By Ed Oswald | Published June 4, 2008, 2:15 PM

Created by music artist Peter Gabriel, The Filter looks to recommend music, movies, and Web video based on the individual users tastes and mood.

Gabriel and several others have reportedly invested about $5 million USD in The Filter, a service that can apparently recognize about five million songs.

The site describes itself as using a holistic approach to recommendations. At the core is something called Bayesian mathematics, which deals with distribution of probability. In this context, it deals with the relative likelihood that you'll like some particular choice based on the probabilities of other factors that come into play -- whether other people like it, for instance, and whether you like similar things.

Several factors come into play based on what is called an evidence model. The user's purchase and consumption data is combined with his or her browsing habits. Using those as assessment criteria, the site's engine then develops customized recommendations.

"The Filter aims to be the best possible blend of man and machine - a hybrid engine that filters all entertainment content to one's own personal taste", co-founder and chief strategy officer Martin Hopkins said.

Better yet, TheFilter.com also attempts to use your preferences in one type of content, say music, and apply that to its personalized movie recommendations.

Offered by the company is a small plug-in for Mac that works with iTunes, and a plug-in for Windows compatible with iTunes as well as Windows Media Player and Winamp. Once installed, the initial run of the plug-in will do a scan of your music library to see what you own and what you play -- information which is then sent back to the site.

Additionally, during the sign-up process, some initial questions are asked to begin to populate the user's front page, asking for her top three favorite music and movie genres. This is how the process is seeded.

Once that process is complete, the quantity of data provided to The Filter in order for it to make future recommendations is determined by the user. The downloadable plug-in is not necessary -- a user can decide to just use the service's Web site to rate tracks.

Even with the program scanning my library, I still didn't see a change on the front page of Filter. But the company says several matters remain to be worked out, and the site is very much a work in progress.

"We're not going to lie -- the site is public beta -- meaning the site is still in development. We'll still be fixing bugs, making it load faster, improving the design and completing the project for quite some time," the company said in a post on its Web site.

Comments

I'm currently beta testing a recommendation engine which uses a broader approach by comparing visitors tastes instead of any perceived artist similarities.
http://returnr.com

Score: 0

|

Seems Fishy to me, and I mean that in the literal way. Giving the RIAA a fishing pole to find people with MP3s they do not approve of. Meaning anything that has no DRM on it. Including the "ILLEGAL" ones that they say exists that the public rips from their own purchased CDs. (Oh they quickly did a side step of that when confronted, but it shows the attitude these people have in regards to the publics fair use rights.)

While I agree the concept is intriguing, I don't quite like the idea of such information being in a place that very well may become the new RIAA playground for illegal searches of your machine since mediasentry and other such antip2p companies are now under federal investigation.

Score: 0

|

AGREE 100%. What a blatant attempt by somebody to get rich(er) selling a fat database to "The Man".

Score: 0

|

Before it can tackle Windows, Chrome must leave Safari in the dust

It's a little browser with dreams of becoming a bigger operating system some day. But while it's chasing Microsoft's dreams, Chrome's tail is being chased by Apple.

Silverlight 3 goes live on Microsoft's servers

Microsoft's answer to Adobe's Flash is (unofficially) here, with prospects of higher-speed, higher-resolution video and for the first time, 3D.

Best Buy-brand TVs to get TiVo

A new alliance will place the retailer's own brand alongide the manufacturers, and could also lead to future partnerships on services.

Three Android phones on the way from T-Mobile in 2009

T-Mobile's myTouch 3G, launched Wednesday, will be followed by two more Android phones later this year, but neither of them will be HTC's Hero.

LTE still lacks a voice

The 4G Wireless standard that Verizon hopes to show off before this year is out is still at a loss for (spoken) words.

T-Mobile's strategy to combat Apple's iPhone with Android

With a trio of Android phones now in the pipeline for 2009, T-Mobile hopes to break the iPhone's emerging stranglehold.

EC's Reding: Government should act as broker for media downloads

If Internet media services don't step up and build an attractive way for users to start paying for downloads, a commissioner says, government may do the job instead.

Sony TVs get Netflix, still no PS3

Though it's coming in behind LG, Samsung, and Microsoft, Sony will begin to offer Netflix streaming, too.

Google Chrome OS: Too little, too early

Carmi Levy: Wide Angle Zoom Don't start the revolution just yet, says Carmi, who isn't so certain Chrome OS will be the "Windows Killer."

GAO pen test brings the hammer down on federal rent-a-cops

But are the computers to blame for the contract-guard fiasco at FPS?

What's Next: Chrome OS will have at least some friends in high places

Also: South Korea takes another round of DDoS abuse, and Neelie Kroes and Steve Ballmer may shake hands before she exits stage left.

Data sharing among online advertisers: Is sanity in sight?

Lockdown with Angela Gunn In the middle of a 15-page plea not to get regulated, a spark of smart thinking.

PST Recovery Software 12.0

July 9 - 11:34 PM ET

Unistal Data Recovery 12.08.06

July 9 - 11:09 PM ET

BKF Repair 3.0

July 9 - 10:54 PM ET

Vuze for Windows 4.2.0.4

July 9 - 6:26 PM ET

UltraVNC 1.0.6.4

July 9 - 6:05 PM ET

WildBit Viewer 5.5 Beta 3.0

July 9 - 5:44 PM ET