What genre is that song? New artificial intelligence program classifies music by style
In order to make sense of the universe, human beings have always needed to put things we encounter into neat piles. We do this with music, of course, by classifying songs by genre and style. But with millions and millions of songs out there, who has the time?
Sounds like a job for Artificial Intelligence. This is from Variety:
Nielsen-owned media data specialist Gracenote wants to help music services make better mixes with fewer outliers: The company announced a new music dataset called Sonic Style Wednesday that classifies 90 million tracks not by the genre the artist is known for, but the actual style of the recording.
This will allow services making use of Gracenote’s data to for instance compile a playlist of all of Taylor Swift’s dance pop hits, while keeping anything that sounds too much like country out of the mix. Or combine The Clash’s old-school punk tracks without adding some of the bands new wave fare.
“Now that playlists are the new albums, music curators are clamoring for deeper insights into individual recordings for better discovery and personalization,” said Gracenote music and auto GM Brian Hamilton.
