On Fridays we're given a little more freedom by Josh, the steward of our blog, to post about topics that might be off limits any other day of the week. So, since it's Friday, I'm going to post about something that’s been on my mind for awhile - my experience with the recommendation capabilities of a couple of subscription music services. Specifically, the subscription music service Rhapsody and Sirius Satellite Radio.Okay, I know, Sirius doesn’t recommend songs. It’s satellite radio. But, it actually does a better job of playing new songs I like than Rhapsody ever has. Rhapsody prides itself on having an elaborate recommendation engine that compiles personalized playlists and streams tunes on my own personalized Rhapsody channel. It also has a service called “My Rhapsody” that is designed for me to discover albums and artists it recommends.
Thanks, but no thanks, Rhapsody. And here’s why.
I think I threw a monkey wrench into the Rhapsody recommendation machine when I downloaded a few ABBA tracks. Yes, I like ABBA. But now, Rhapsody thinks I’m a fan of disco. I also like to listen to Jazz when I’m working — but that’s it. So now, Rhapsody thinks it needs to recommend Jazz in addition to Disco. This is just as off the mark as Amazon.com thinking my buddy is into country because he bought a Sugarland CD as a gift for his wife.
There’s nothing as complex on Sirius. I choose a radio station, and Sirius plays great music from that genre. The human DJs they have working for them really know how to pick tunes. I find myself listening to the “human recommendations” on Sirius, and then using Rhapsody to download those tracks to my MP3 player. I imagine neither Rhapsody nor Sirius had that combined use case in mind.
