BY PAUL MALONEY
There's nothing like too much choice to make a decision all but impossible. Think about your five favorite restaurants -- and how difficult it'd be to order your dinner from a menu that combined all of the five restaurants' entrees. That'd be enough to make me go home and cook (actually, no...it wouldn't be).

Consumers are faced with an even more daunting challenge when trying to find new music online. Technology has made it possible for so many more musicians than ever before to get their art in front of people. And you don't have to look past Napster to realize that music is a "killer content" of the Internet ("MP3" passed "sex" as the most-often entered search engine term). People want music more than porn! But it can be so difficult to get the payoff. Where do you go, and how do you pick something out of the mountains of unfamiliar music when you get there?

A few different companies are wagering that a lot of consumers are confused enough about how to find music online to get familiar with their particular form of "music selection" service. These companies, through a variety of methods, try to steer the user towards new music that they might like, based on the user's taste and/or listening history.

A company called MoodLogic has assembled a database of songs according to what the company calls the "DNA" of the music. They claim to have cataloged and compared a half-million songs based on "metadata" -- the mood, genre, tempo, beat, vocalists, instruments, and almost 120 other distinct characteristics of each piece.

A business-to-business venture, MoodLogic's technology is intended to be used by different third parties in the form of one of four products.

For retailers, MoodLogic makes custom "Music Browsers," designed to help customers find new music based on music with which they're already familiar and enjoy. "Personal Streamer" is a series of music streams that can be customized according to taste and mood. This product is aimed at broadcasters and ISPs. There's also the "Playlist Creator," for customers of MP3 "locker" sites to aid in putting together playlists from vast music collections, again based on mood and taste. And finally, the "Music Research Service" is online music perception surveys for radio and record companies.

Another music recommendation service that can be used by consumers, but with "B2B" applications, is Gigabeat. Like MoodLogic, Gigabeat's platform consists of a number of applications for businesses to help make their customers music hunting easier and more productive.

Their website explains the complex process of how they procure and process their data. But the user really doesn't need to know any of that. He or she simply types in the name of a song and/or artist. The end result for the user looking for new music is the "GigaSpiral" graph. The user's choice is positioned in the middle of what looks like the weatherman's symbol for tornado, to "provide a view of the artist and song relationship universe."

Music Buddha, or MuBu, though with B2B possibilities, is mostly positioned for the consumer at this point. Visitors are walked through a simple, "flow chart-like" process of choosing a format and listening to song clips. He or she rates each clip as to how much it fits their musical tastes, and the results are compiled to create profiles. The information built here helps MuBu recommend music for the user, and would logically be the value that can be offered to record labels looking to do some pinpoint marketing.

Please see our "RAIN Internet Radio Site of the Week" review of Microsoft's RadioMongo here. But aside from customizing the radio stream, you can use MongoMusic to find music with the "Sounds Like" function. Clicking a genre link brings up a list of the most popular titles of that category. Pick a favorite and go. From there, you can follow a web of songs, albums, and artists that branches on and on from your original favorite. The mechanism seems to be set up simply to help users customize their radio stream, or to buy music from Amazon.com. In other words, like Buddha, it's made for the consumer.

Offering music-finding technology to design a personalized radio stream is also one of the features of MusicMatch ("RAIN Internet Radio Site of the Week" here). But this system not only keeps track of the songs you choose and rate for your radio; it actually compiles and reports your habits and tastes based upon anything that uses the MusicMatch jukebox player on your computer -- including MP3's already on your hard drive, and even cds. The system then offers you recommendations based on your listening habits, and the recommendations of the MusicMatch "community."

Take one or two of these systems for a spin. You might be surprised at how well they can work (or how painfully predictable you are!). And even if you don't buy anything, it's kind of fun. It will be interesting to follow these services (and the others like them out there) to see what kind of consumer adoption they can achieve.

For more, read these excellent articles: "You're the One That I Want" by Jyoti Thottam, from the January/February 2001 Time Digital (here); "Tell Me What I Like to Hear" by Ankario Lara, from the October 13th ZDNet (here); and "Netcos, Tell Me What I Like" by Julene Snyder, in the November 21st "Beat Sheet" newsletter from The Industry Standard (here).

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The following piece is a parody, intended for entertainment purposes only.


BY BOB BELLIN
Mp3.com announced plans to unveil a new service today. Tentatively named "mylife.com", it will charge users to experience pre-existing aspects of their lives in a virtual format. The service will be patterned after mp3.com's controversial mymp3.com feature, which charges users to listen to CD's they already own.

Details were unveiled at a press conference, which was widely attended by consumer Internet reporters. Mp3.com CEO Michael Robertson, in a prepared statement said "we were very encouraged by the market's reaction to our concept of charging people for access to items they've already paid for. We spent $170 million to provide a service that couldn't possibly ever return a fraction of that and mp3.com's market capitalization nearly tripled overnight. Our plan is to harness our existing equity in the pay for experience entrée space and charge fees for remote access to most aspects of peoples existing personal lives."

When pressed by reporters for specifics, Mr. Robertson provided some examples. "Let's say an executive is on a business trip. Mylife.com could provide access to everything from family strife, to an identical replica of the Toyota Avalon he drives at home, right down to the coffee stain on the passenger seat."

To read more of this piece, please click here or follow the "Guest Essay" link on the left-hand menu.

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Radio Business Report is reporting that broadcast streaming provider BroadcastAmerica has pulled the plug on its remaining affiliates' streams. Earlier this month the company cut service to almost 600 stations that used the company's services. This past November, the company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy and combined with SurferNetwork (reported in RAIN here).

A Federal court allowed Sprint, MCI, and Real Networks to halt all services to BroadcastAmerica due to non-payment of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Further, RBR says President John Brier sent an internal communication on Tuesday indicating that there is no money to pay the remaining 30 employees.

Other streaming providers seem to be having some problems too. Global Media, in an SEC file, claims it will cease operations 12/31 unless more capital is found. And RealNetworks, following Wednesday's warning of less-than-anticipated earnings, saw their stock price dip below six dollars. It had traded as high as $96.

The Radio Business Report is here.

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Reprinted from yesterday's issue...

MeasureCast's Internet radio Top 10 for the week of December 11 has been released. Please click here or the MeasureCast Top Ten link under "Metrics" on the left-hand menu of RAIN.

February 1-4, 2001	RAB 2001, Dallas, TX
February 26-28, 2001	Broadcasters Website Sales Conf. 2.0, Tempe, AZ