Music similarity explorer?

August 12, 2004 3:43 PM

Finding music like other bands....

A while ago there was a link on blue that had a graphical interface that showed similar bands. Can't find it. Any help?

Any other suggestions, if I like certain bands, to find similar things? I know this is like "generic music question" and all, but none of the major music sites seem to want to interlink music together well.

posted by benjh to media & arts (9 comments total)

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posted by dobbs at 3:48 PM on August 12, 2004

musicplasma.com?
posted by milovoo at 3:48 PM on August 12, 2004

Gnod's Statistics?
posted by scarabic at 3:53 PM on August 12, 2004

Holy shit! music plasma rocks. I think I'll stop posting Gnod's now...

[sneaks away]
posted by scarabic at 3:59 PM on August 12, 2004

In the several test searches I did, musicplasma's results were crap – tenuous connections, missing obvious connections, and incorrect relative popularity (circle size). I wonder where they got their data.
posted by D.C. at 4:37 PM on August 12, 2004

From my understanding, musicplasma surveyed people a few years back for bands they liked and what not. All of their data is in turn based on those surveys not on anything current or objective. That is why, they have a lot of electronica and the like but very little of other types of music. It is a good resource, but a limited one, I wish they'd open it up again. You can try audioscrobbler.com but not sure if you're not a registered user if it'll help much.
posted by pwb503 at 10:43 PM on August 12, 2004

I usually find a band, search for their website and find out who their influences are and who they've played shows with in the past. This process has lead me to some pretty awesome bands in the past.

Music plasma seems pretty good, except a search for U2 lead me to "Seal". That's just wrong.
posted by dflemingdotorg at 10:40 AM on August 13, 2004

Music plasma seems pretty good, except a search for U2 lead me to "Seal".

I worked in a record store for 4 years and can confirm that many people who bought U2 also bought Seal and vice versa. That's not to say they sound alike (though to my ears they do), but fans of one often like the other.
posted by dobbs at 11:01 AM on August 13, 2004

Epitonic is pretty good.
posted by Tlogmer at 2:07 PM on August 13, 2004