The AI that can craft the perfect breakup playlist: Gracenote launches Sonic Style machine learning service to classify 90 million songs by style
- Nielsen's Gracenote announced launch of service Sonic Style on Wednesday
- The artificial intelligence will sort 90 million songs by style for the first time
- Developed nearly 450 descriptors to create style profiles of each recording
- Categories can sort individual artists by different subgenre or style, with the intent being to create 'perfect' playlist, such as breakups and 'old school punk'
Nielsen-owned Gracenote has announced the launch of an artificial intelligence service called Sonic Style that will sort massive catalogs of music by style for the first time ever.
Sonic Style will classify 90 million songs not by the genre of music the artist is known for, but rather the actual style of each individual recording.
Music has typically categorized by artist genres, such as rock or hip hop. However, artist genres alone do not always tell the full story of an artist's full catalog or career.
Nielsen-owned Gracenote has announced the launch of an artificial intelligence service called Sonic Style that will sort massive catalogs of music by style for the first time ever
Gracenote has developed nearly 450 Sonic Style descriptor values.
'Sonic Style applies neural network-powered machine learning to the world's music catalogs, enabling Gracenote to deliver granular views of musical styles across complete music catalogs,' said Brian Hamilton, General Manager of Music and Auto for Gracenote.
For instance, Taylor Swift is traditionally classified as simply pop or country.
The new system is able to sort through her entire catalog and separate songs that lean towards different subgenres, such as Look What You Made Me Do, which has far more pop electronica, dance pop and electroclash influences.
The intent of the new intelligence is to help smart speakers, voice assistants, streaming services and people create better, more personalized playlists.
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'Now that playlists are the new albums, music curators are clamoring for deeper insights into individual recordings for better discovery and personalization,' said Hamilton.
'These new turbo-charged style descriptors will revolutionize how the world's music is organized and curated, ultimately delivering the freshest, most personalized playlists to keep fans listening.'
The intent of the new intelligence is to help smart speakers, voice assistants, streaming services and people create better, more personalized playlists
Sonic Style data will help human music curators and algorithms filter outliers from playlists and recommendations.
For an eclectic artist such as The Clash, an Old School Punk playlist contained only tracks truly of that style such as Career Opportunities, and excluded others such as the funky Magnificent Seven, based on that track's actual Sonic Style of 'New Wave Dance.'
Need to sob your heart out? Sonic Style can help create the perfect breakup playlist.
WHAT ARE THE TOP MUSIC STREAMING SERVICES?
Online streaming services such Spotify and Apple Music have become the music industry's single biggest revenue source, overtaking physical sales and digital downloads for the first time.
The rapid growth in streaming music services in recent years has led to a recovery in the fortunes of the global recorded music industry, which enjoyed its third year of positive revenue growth, according to a report by industry trade group IFPI.
Online streaming services such Spotify and Apple Music have become the music industry's single biggest revenue source
Last year, subscription-based streaming revenue accounted for 38 percent of all recorded music, up from 29 percent the year before, IFPI said.
Industry leaders say that the rise of music streaming is enabling the market to reach new regions of the world, while helping weaning a generation of music fans away from free or pirated music.
Latin America and China saw the biggest market growth, with a rise in overall music revenue of 17.7 percent and 35.3 percent respectively.
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