For the last few days I have been making use of the Music Genome Project’s Pandora. The idea behind Pandora is to create a “Radio Channel” that is based on the musical qualities found in another song or the songs produced by a specific artist. So far I am more than impressed. Other than one song I wanted it to match that it didn’t know about (Pass the Vibes by Definition of Sound), it has done a brilliant job at playing me music that is closely related to what I have selected.

The matching seems to be done by analysing the musical qualities of a particular song (for example synchopated rhythms, dark bass lines, fast beats, melodic vocals…) and then cross references those qualities against a database of songs to determine other songs that match the qualities of the selected song/artist. These guys have a blog that provides more information on what they do.

All that we need now is for someone to do the same with humans. For example you enter the name of a famous actress or model (or if you are femme, actor), and it then analyses the traits of that person and picks out a number of other people that match those qualities. In fact, this would be great for a dating service. When you sign up you have to take a picture of yourself (say, in your underwear), it is then analysed and stored into a database. You then look at a group of different people and choose that which is most desirable, those physical characteristics are then used to match you with people that match your preference. Anyone got a blank check? I might start this business up myself!