I’ve really been getting a kick out of The Filter – an iTunes-compatible tool that uses the AllMusic.com guide to make playlists of songs and artists that go well together. I select a few tracks in iTunes, click the button, and I get a new playlist with the songs I selected, plus several more that “fit” with the same artist and/or genre. I’ve gotten some great recommended songs, and it pulled stuff out of the deep end of the pool that I hadn’t heard in a long time.
Here’s some info about it, along with a download link:
The Filter
www.thefilter.com
Peter Gabriel’s music recommendation software to launch for the Apple Mac
The much-anticipated Mac version of music recommendation software, The Filter, will be launched by Exabre on March 21st, 2007.
Initially launched as a beta for PC/Win XP in 2006, The Filter instantly became a must-have for any self-respecting iTunes user, garnering great feedback from the media and users alike.
The Filter is the ultimate music recommendation service: it will create great playlists from your iTunes library, according to a couple of seed tracks you select; it can make these playlists according to your mood or your activity (the commute, the gym) and can update them daily to your iPod; and not content with recommending music from your own library, it will use its finely tuned analysis of your musical taste to recommend new music it thinks you will like.
The Filter is very easy to use. Simply download the free software, highlight one or two songs that typify what you want to listen to from your iTunes library and The Filter will generate a playlist for you (ideally you need to have over 500 tracks in your library to get the full benefit of The Filter). It saves hours of your time and will rekindle a love of your music collection. Even the most dedicated music junkie won’t be able to resist the temptation – great playlists within a matter of clicks.
And The Filter is intuitive. It works by scanning your library, using Artificial Intelligence. It is like a living brain, learning what you like to listen to by analysing your music tastes and cross-referencing with those of other users and musical trends. So the more you use The Filter, the better it gets at judging your tastes and the better its recommendations become.
The Filter will also be re-launching their website. The new site will give the user a bespoke “My Filter” page – with personal recommendations for songs and artists, plus biographies, pictures and videos (from You Tube).
The Filter has been developed by Bath based company Exabre, early pioneers of recommendation software for the digital music world. The Filter is backed by a team that includes rock visionary Peter Gabriel and Charles Grimsdale, founder of European digital music pioneer OD2 (now owned by Nokia).
The Filter for Mac runs on 10.4 with recommended 512MB and G4 or better set up.
The Filter is also available for Win XP and iTunes and the following Nokia mobile phones – Series 60, Nokia E60, N93 and N80, all at www.thefilter.com.
I knew you’d love it Brian!
I think it’s great, but have still not figured out how to select more than one song.
Select more than one song?
You mean in iTunes – hold down control and click. Or if you’re on the Mac hold down command to select multiple items in iTunes.
Is this what you mean?
Good find Brian! My one problem is that it defaults to the Apple UK store and there’s no way to switch back to the US store.
Exactly Gerrard, thanks a lot!
Where does a store fit in Len? This is just for selecting songs you have already. Do you mean on sign up? I was an Alpha tester and I recall it was just an application I DL and then it just started up and examined my existing library.
It just sits there on my Mac as an “f” button to the left of the volume symbol.
I have a lot of music videos in my library, as you might imagine from my video trivia show. The Filter adds songs to your playlist without regard to format. In other words, a 10 song play list might include MP3, AAC, MOV and MP4 files. If you want all videos or to exclude videos, you’d have to make a bigger playlist and then a smart playlist to narrow it down based on your additional criteria.