Seeds of Discovery

I grab music from several different sources: Pandora, YouTube, forum postings, and sometimes from the occasional (online) radio station. Out of all of them, Pandora has been the main driver of new artist discovery. I've also found that it links up well with YouTube when I go to search for the music video of a song that is playing.

When it comes to deciding which acts to add as station seeds, I try to stick to adding musicians that I would want to listen to on a regular basis. In regard to thumbs-upping a track, even though I may not like a particular song in its entirety, I will keep a keen ear for any technical sounds that I do like in said output(s), such as synths, drums, guitars and so on.



While I don't know what Pandora's algorithm is actually doing, I'd like to think that my process of selection is influencing its future picks as it tries to analyze what the next track is going to be. As I understand it, it determines this based off my listening history. For example, if I liked a song that used four chords instead of one, Pandora will recognize this. Overall, since I started with Pandora, I've looked at the whole thing as a complete experiment, having never expected a specific result. After all, any station I create will only be as good as the artists I pick and the songs I choose to thumbs-up.

I keep my electronic and rock stations separate for purity purposes. I wish Pandora made it easier to generate lists and stations in printable form, but they don't, so I had to type all of this manually. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I spelled everything correctly.

These are my electronic seeds:

ELECTRONIC SEEDS

501
Virtual Riot & Lisa Rowe
W&W
John O'Callaghan
Mt Eden
Adventure Club
Flight Facilities
Omnia & IRA
DotEXE
Nero
Skrillex
NiT GriT
Tritonal
Exodus, LJ MTX & Jason Risk
Armin van Buuren
Steven Swartz
Mord Fustang
SirensCeol
Nadia Ali
Morgan Page
BT
Xilent
NERVO
Nero
Krewella
Felix Cartal & Clockwork
Calvertron
Protohype & Kezwik
Dyro & Amba Shepherd
Flinch
Document One
Statix & Eddie K
Rogue & Laura Brehm
Arkasia
James Egbert
Porter Robinson
TheFatRat
Singularity
Arty
PeaceTreaty
Blackmill
Crywolf
Sub Focus
Pendulum
Juventa
Koven
Shogun
Emma Hewitt
Savoy
Static Revenger
Mikkas
Mitis
Andrew Rayal & Cindy Alma
Gaia
Aruna
Foxes
Razihel
Lissie
Aubrey O'Day
Angela McCluskey
Matduke & Veela
Dabruck & Klein
Anna Yvette
Andy Moor
Charity Strike & Bais Haus
tyDi & Audrey Gallagher
Maison & Dragen
Reepublic
Sylvia Tosun
Cazzette
Pierce Fulton
Myon & Shane 54
Feint
Beat Service
Pulser
Kevin Drew
Tom Swoon
Lush & Simon
Ben Gold
Rogue
Cosmic Gate
Cutline & Ayah Marar
Pyramid Scheme & Mat Zo
JES
Sunlounger
Jochen Miller
Dabin
Gabriel & Dresden
M'Black
Dirty Shade
Dave Aude
CLMD & Kish
Zeds Dead & Dirtyphonics
George Acosta & Fisher
Motorcycle
Ashley Wallbridge
Henrix & Sevag
Trivecta
Jason Nevins
Revero & Jonathan Pitch
Twofold
Lets Be Friends
Marcus Schossow
Craig Connelly & Christina Novelli
Lilly Wolf
Orjan Nilsen
Arno Cost & Norman Doray
Oh Snap It's Luke!
Husman
Knife Party
Muzzy
Venemy
OceanLab
Ziggy Marley
Minnesota
Alex Morph & Rank 1
Kairo Kingdom
Ziggy
Johan Vilborg
Lange
Phynn
Markus Schulz
Andy Moor
Tom Cloud
Sultan & Ned Shepard
Morgan Page, Sultan, Ned Shepard & BT
The Blizzard (Dance)
David Tort
Way Out West
Popeska
Muffler
Bougenvilla
Eric Prydz
Hernan Cattaneo
Sander van Doorn
Shock One
Luke Bond
Mercer
Chris Schweizer
Kat Krazy
FTampa
Sinewave
Sqeepo
Mark Otten
Ava Mea
4 Strings
Joonas Hahmo
C-Systems
DJ Project
Kyau & Albert
Glenn Morrison
Jeysound
Cyantific
Hook N Sling
Alison Wonderland
Borgore
Mark Lawrence
Oxylice
Jetski Safari
Ryan Farish
William Orbit
DJ Encore
Sneijder
Stereoheroes
12 Inch Plastic Toys
Subscape
Black Sun Empire
Spectrem
Alex Sonata
Schiller
Sugarpill
Oh Tebins
Smith & Pledger
Big Gigantic
Ian O'Brien
Chase & Status
Jerome Isma-Ae

My electronic station is the golden pony. My rock station? Well, other than the big names that I already know and like, it's nowhere near as good as my electronic station insofar as pulling ace tracks out of left field; it tends to stick to playing the major hits, and new artist discovery has been tough. However, I'm of the opinion that that has more to do with not having the right artists that would help me expand it, rather than being of the mindset that the well has run dry.

These are the seeds that make up my rock station:

ROCK/METAL SEEDS



Bad Religion
Zero 7
Anberlin
Manafest
Stereomud
Early Pearl
Sunna
Martyrd
Seventh Day Slumber
Pop Evil
Amaranthe
The Vernons
SR-71
Kadavar
Atom Smash
Kopek
People In Planes
Scars of Life
Revalation Theory
Egypt Central
Kutless
The Weeks
Bush
The Winery Dogs
Daylight
Superheaven
Falling Up
Core
Forty Foot Echo
Nine Lashes
Cage9
Pillar
32 Leaves
Submersed
Thornley
Big Wreck
Black Stone Cherry
Starset
Scissorfight
The White Jacket
7 Days Away
Radio Moscow
Mona
Missy Higgins
Sponge
Green River
Reignwolf
The Union Underground
Adema
Sparta
Silversun Pickups
Lisa Loeb
John Butler Trio
Harvey Danger
Hootie & The Blowfish
Boy Hits Car
Fiona Apple
Chris Cornell
Tantric
Metallica
At The Drive-In
Robert Palmer
Queen
Veruca Salt
Temple of the Dog
Silverchair
Soundgarden
Nirvana
Mad Season
Live
Days of the New
Bullet For My Valentine
Blind Melon
The Black Keys
The Sheepdogs
The Mars Volta
Holywater
Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Canterbury
Fighting Gemini
Static-X
Limp Bizkit
Taproot
Ashes of Soma
The Silver Comet
Device
Alice In Chains
Midnight Spin
Jordan Cook
Wolf Mother
The Gracious Few

As I allude to, my rock station has been harder to build for whatever reason. Due to this, I've had to take a different approach to things: (a) I will add bands or thumbs-up tracks even if I don't necessarily like them and (b) even if I think a band or a song won't be beneficial from a technical standpoint, I will add them in the hopes that Pandora will spawn me something greater than what I've been able to come up with myself -- eventually. A snowball effect, in essence.

I hate feeling like I have to stretch in order to like something, or convince myself that I do, simply because I'm not coming across material that is better than the next. I know when I'm doing that, and I know when I'm not. Ultimately, the lack of growth in this area serves as a reminder that I need to put more work into watering my, wait for it...rock garden.