ABSTRACT
The logical imperative that guides music recommendation algorithms can be illustrated by reducing a hypothetical failed recommendation to the point of absurdity. Music information retrieval (MIR) algorithms fail to truly expand their user's musical horizons because they favor sonic sameness over novelty, a distinct example of irony. The contradiction at the root of this irony is that commercial MIR algorithms imply that they will expose users to music they have not heard before, even while proposing songs that sound similar to those that listeners already like. Collaborative filtering aligns listener response to individual users through items and groups of other system users by considering taste similarity. Content-based filtering categorizes music using two types of information, textual and sonic. Pandora has made great contributions to MIR by adopting a human-labor-intensive and risky filtering system while navigating the high seas of the open market. Exploring the long tail is a fundamental human enterprise, it is the process of broadening ones cultural horizons.
