GNOD – Music Discovery Tools

     The Global Network of Discovery (GNOD) seems to cycle through degrees of attention, much like a sea turtle that periodically resurfaces for air. Well, GNOD is currently taking a breathe. It has two tools for music discovery.

     One tool is the Music Map, which is designed to allow users to interactively navigate through their preferences and the site’s recommendations. The musical similarity between a user’s preference and a particular recommendation is represented by spacing – “The closer two names are, the greater the probability people will like both artists.”

     The Music Map is found at http://www.music-map.com/. The site does not focus on the popular bands. That is, it is not limited to recommending bands such as U2, Vampire Weekend and The Rolling Stones. We followed a path that resulted in the recommendation of The Eastern Sea. That path started with our entry of “Modest Mouse.” The below map was presented ("click" the image to enlarge, but this is a screen capture, so it is not interactive).

Click image to enlarge

     Within that map, we selected Broken Social Scene and the below map was presented ("click" the image to enlarge, but this is a screen capture, so it is not interactive).

Click image to enlarge

     For your personal navigation, the interactive Music Map can be found at http://www.music-map.com/.

     The second interactive tool is found at http://www.gnoosic.com/. To start, merely enter the names of three bands you enjoy. The site will present a recommendation and allow you to select among “”I like it,” “I don’t like it,” and “I don’t know.” Another recommendation appears after you make the selection.

     To test the knowledge of the tool, we stayed away from the bands with a high level of commercial success. Our three entries were “The Mispers,” “Quiet Hollers” and “The Dunwells.” The site recommnded White Chalk - Yes, good start. As we “voted” on the recommendations, the sequence continued:

Broken Hands – OK, we like the song “Meteor.”

Then, Darryl Worley – WHAT???

Then, Nordic Giants – Sure

Then, Darlingside – this makes sense, given our inputs.

      “The Architects” by White Chalk

     “White Horses” by Darlingside