Trent Reznor working on new music discovery platform for Beats

Musician Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) -- who's now also chief Creative Officer for Beats Electronics -- is hinting about a revolutionary new music recommendation platform from his company, set to launch in 2013.

Reznor's characterization of the platform as a combination of expert curation and machine intelligence sounds more than a little like customizable online radio (a la Pandora, etc.).

Reznor told The New Yorker (here) (as reported by Billboard, here) the technology "uses mathematics to offer suggestions to the listener... based partly on suggestions made by connoisseurs, making it a platform in which the machine and the human would collide more intimately."

Hypebot.com (here) observes, "Reznor's actual comments suggest that he isn't aware of the history or landscape of music curation and discovery. Yet, given that he is Trent Reznor, it's also possible that they really are pushing such services to a new level."

Beats, which owns the popular Beats By Dre line of audio accessories as well as the on-demand music service MOG, has code-named the service "Daisy."

Billboard writes, "Music discovery, or 'the problem of what to listen to next,' is a vexing one for music services as well as record companies that believe people will buy more music if they were exposed to more bands that match their tastes."

Last week competitor Spotify added a new feature that offers playlists from musicians, celebrities, and genre experts, customized to the listener's own playlists, preferences, and listening patterns.