TuneGlue AudioMaps

The October 16 issue of PC Magazine had a sidebar noting the site TuneGlue as a "Best of the Internet". I checked it out, and it is pretty slick. It is a flash-based site that takes the name of a music group or artist as input, and then lets you get back various bits of information about them. The most interesting aspect is the audio-map feature, accessible by clicking the artist's circle and then clicking Expand. This locates six-related artists, from which you could then repeat the procedure several times to develop a music-map to see the relationships between the artists.

I did several tests of this and found it to be fairly accurate. I started with Enya, and found that many of the artists it said were one or two-level relationships with Enya are exactly the same artists that Pandora selects for me based on my interest in Enya.

The results for Pink Floyd were not very enlightening, as they included some of the biggest groups from the 60s and 70s (Beatles, Doors, Led Zep, etc.). But then when I tried Jethro Tull, I was pleased to see Pink Floyd as one of the six bands directly related.

I tried several other artists, with mixed results in my opinion. Then again, perhaps what I consider to be closely related artists and what the rest of the world does are not in close alignment!

I'll also note that the database seems to be pretty deep, as I looked up Dargaard and they were included, as is Stan Rogers a favorite of Susan's.

Pretty nifty site, and a good way to research new artists that you might want to check out!