> Yeah OPs comment is some sort of idealistic historical revision that ignores the fact that there were a myriad of streaming services that predated Spotify.
That may be true, but Negroponte was proselytizing streaming media back in the early 90s, long before anything like Spotify or Netflix were actually practical. Did all this hot air have any effect? I have no idea. But from where I was sitting, he was definitely pushing hard for something that others were not at the time.
Also, the first music recommendation service I ever heard of was started at the Media Lab. It was called Ringo, and you'd email it a list of your favorite bands, and it would then email you back recommendations for other music you might like. Ringo was implemented using some sort of statistical correlation amongst other people's lists of favorite bands.
Ringo was eventually spun off into a company called Firefly which ran a music community website that used this technology. It didn't do so well, though, and was eventually bought by Microsoft, which shut down the website about a year later.
> Like isn't streaming music based on preferences pretty easy?
Sure, but I don't think that doing it very well is. I mean they typically do an okay job, but I've yet to find one that just blows me away with its ability to find music for me that I will love.
Yes, I'm introduced to some good new music this way. But I also have to listen to a lot of dreck too.
In terms of mass-market success, goodness of recommendations is like, #12 on the list of must-have features for a (streaming) music service.
#1 is "It must have all of the music", which is really a lawyer problem, not an engineering problem.
(#2-#11 are just variations of "No no, I mean all the music", "Does it have really old music, like X?" "What about really niche music like Y?" "Oh, oh, what about Z? I bet it doesn't have Z.")
> In terms of mass-market success, goodness of recommendations is like, #12 on the list of must-have features
Well, maybe that's why they generally are not so great.
On the other hand, Pandora has traditionally existed with playing music that you'll like, but didn't explicitly select, as its reason for existence. Maybe that's why it seems to do a better job at this than other streaming services.
That may be true, but Negroponte was proselytizing streaming media back in the early 90s, long before anything like Spotify or Netflix were actually practical. Did all this hot air have any effect? I have no idea. But from where I was sitting, he was definitely pushing hard for something that others were not at the time.
Also, the first music recommendation service I ever heard of was started at the Media Lab. It was called Ringo, and you'd email it a list of your favorite bands, and it would then email you back recommendations for other music you might like. Ringo was implemented using some sort of statistical correlation amongst other people's lists of favorite bands.
Ringo was eventually spun off into a company called Firefly which ran a music community website that used this technology. It didn't do so well, though, and was eventually bought by Microsoft, which shut down the website about a year later.
> Like isn't streaming music based on preferences pretty easy?
Sure, but I don't think that doing it very well is. I mean they typically do an okay job, but I've yet to find one that just blows me away with its ability to find music for me that I will love.
Yes, I'm introduced to some good new music this way. But I also have to listen to a lot of dreck too.