Excellent example. Let's break down what the current algorithm is and is not doing. The current algorithm creates stations based on one station for each artist / band, so that station has to include songs of every kind of mood that artist / band released, and then from the average of the songs on that station, other songs will be added, but again songs of every kind of mood. What the current algorithm is not doing is what many humans prefer, to create and listen to stations based on mood (ie chill vibes, so sad, in love, happy and upbeat, etc.) or activity (sleep, study beats, road trip, running, backyard bar-b-que, etc.) So, let's say you're in a happy, upbeat mood and craving the Beatle's version of "Shake It Up, Baby," So, you go to the Beatles radio station on Pandora, but instead "Hey Jude" plays, which was perfect for your mood last week but today is a buzzkill. Then "Strawberry Hills" plays and again it doesn't fit your mood. Then a bunch of songs from other artists / bands play that also don't fit your mood. As I said before, this is a weakness of all algorithms, that they are heavily Pareto Principle, and do well in some areas, maybe up to 80%, but don't do well at all in the other areas, at least 20%. So, what this current algorithm seems to do best in is in musical genres where the mood/activity is usually synonymous with the genre itself, like new age music, or jazz, or even many classical songs. Someone wanting to listen to new age music probably wants relaxing, background vibes, so all songs from a typical new age artist are going to be in this same general mood / activity group, as are all the songs from other artists / bands that the algorithm pulls. And what the current algorithm doesn't do well in is the opposite, artists / groups that release songs representing a wide variety or moods or appropriate associated activities. So, the solution, as I already noted, is a hedging algorithm. Let's say that another algorithm was coded that would use mostly the same current inputs as the current algorithm, so not much more work to have two algorithms as opposed to just one. And what this second algorithm would do is create mood-based playlists. For instance, one possibility is it could create additional radio stations on each artists site, so instead of just the main Beatles radio station, there could be ones like "Beatles - Happy & Upbeat" and "Beatles - So Sad" and "Beatles - in Love" and "Beatles - Chill Vibes". Alternately, this new algorithm could create just some master mood / activity playlists and put them on a mood / activity page and pull songs from many artists / groups. Or it could create both. Now, going back to you craving to hear "Shake It Up, Baby" by the Beatles, you could just go to the "Beatles - Happy & Upbeat" radio station and hear that song and many more that will fit your mood. Or you could just search for "happy upbeat" and get the generic "Happy & Upbeat" radio station., Again, the new algorithm could create these stations automatically, and use mostly the inputs that the first algorithm is already using, so other than the initial coding, this wouldn't be much more ongoing work for Pandora, but would offer a hugely different listening experience, and would with the second algorithm hedge one of the main weak areas that the current algorithm has.
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