Pandora began the Music Genome Project in January of 2000, according to Pandora’s website. This project broke music down into fundamental components, such as melody, rhythm, types of instruments, orchestral arrangement, lyrics style, features of lyricists and vocal style. The goal of the Music Genome Project, according to Tim Westergen, founder of the project, is to allow a listener to access different types of music that may not be normally made available to her. For example, musical similarities between Chopin and the Mars Volta may put these two artists together, whereas a trip to the record store may never reveal this association.
As of 2010, Pandora does not allow users to access any individual “gene” of the several hundred particular “genes” being mapped, though in the future, a user may be able to select the genes she wants her music to possess.
Although other stations that make recommendations based upon selections exist, such as Last.fm, the differences in how selections are made is still relatively dramatic. Last.fm functions off of communal selection—what they call “scrobbling”--which matches interests to the interests of other users. For example, if persons who listen to the Mars Volta also listen to Muse, then Last.fm will recommend Muse to a subscriber based on his interest in the Mars Volta.
If a majority of users in communal selection are not aware of the existence of other artists, then matches would not be shown on a site such as Last.fm. With the Music Genome Project, this problem does not exist. Additionally, scientists may use the Music Genome Project in the future to map the interests and comparative values of listeners.
As for visual arts, existent Art Genome Projects are in their elementary phases. Through exhibitions, most museums, art galleries and schools have already begun to create “genes” through categories as broad as “modern” or “neoclassical” or as small as artists specific to regions or even color usage. As of 2010, no universal database exists that allow these sources to put together their “genes” or allow users to access “genes.”
A Facebook user, Michael Sebastian, created the organization, the Art Genome Project, to map the various “genomes” in art. However, this organization, according to Sebastian, is still in the early phases of fundraising. (