Music Genome Project
The Music Genome Project, created in January 2000, is an effort by a group of musicians and technicians to "capture the essence of music at the fundamental level" by using over 400 attributes to describe songs.
The technology is currently used by Pandora to play music for internet users based on their preferences. When users enter an artist's name or song title, elements of the music are analyzed and a search engine is used to find similar songs, both famous and obscure. Obscure artists may submit their music to the Music Genome Project in a bid to become better known.