[paulcole]

> SomeFM is such a rarity these days, a reminder of how we believed the Internet was going to be.

Let me start out by saying that SomaFM is great.

But when I started listening to SomaFM (nearly 20 years ago), I never imagined that for only $10/month I'd be able to listen to (essentially) any song whenever I wanted. That's amazing and so much more valuable (to me) than what Soma offers.

[tbatchelli]

To each their own, I guess. I also pay for Apple Music and have access to all that music, but there is no substitute for curation with a sense of taste and musical direction.

For me, having access to all the music in the world is only marginally better than what I had before when buying CDs (or records even); I don't listen to more music than before. What I really love, instead, is being introduced to a new track that captures my interest, a track that I know I will be listening to multiple times in the future. The quality, and the fact that I would have probably not have found it by myself, or not liked it without the context.

When I was younger, when I had enough pocket money, I would go to the record store, and the problem wasn't how to get a CD, because they had oh so many!, but what CD to get. For this, I relied on friends, radio stations, and the shop keepers. They all had a good portion of the music world in their head, with their own taste and opinion about what's interesting, and I found many gems this way. Automated recommendations don't quite do it for me, nor I have been lucky with other people's playlists; I gotta get acquainted with the curator first in order to trust their curation.

So I listen to SomaFM, and when something gets me interested I go and buy it or add it to my library. Best of both worlds!

[hfourm]

To be honest, Pandora has served that role for me over the years. I am always amazed to look back at my Pandora station history to see how it has evolved into different streams/genres, all stimulated from hearing new music through a Pandora channel, and then starting a new station after I liked it. This has created a web of new music I wouldn't have sought out otherwise.

Obviously, I do think that a human DJ may perform this role better in some cases/genres though.

[rektide]

Buying the Music Genome Project was one of the best purchases any company on this planet has ever made. https://www.pandora.com/about/mgp

I discovered a ton of fantastic music video Music Genome Project before the buy out, on some wonderful slick visualizations. The ability to transition this way & that around some base of music, to have a central idea & to be able to explore outwards, then come back, & transit out to another nearby genre, before coming back again... deeply compelling. MGP was great at broadening my listening horizons.

By contrast, it feels like most music services very quickly are like, "if you like this artist then you'll definitely like this ultra-popular heavily-played artist!" You're like 2 hops away from top 100 music, & they'll actively try to push you into the popular music. Please, I'd just listen to the radio if I wanted to be bored to death with pop music. Switch it up!

[damontal]

Pandora can be maddening.

Create a station for Pixies. Some Bowie song plays. Ok that’s cool.

Create a station for Velvet Underground. Same Bowie song plays. Ok. I guess that makes sense.

Create a station for Warren Zevon. Same goddamned Bowie song plays!

[michaelcampbell]

I'm a 70's-90's metal fan and once heard Ronnie James Dio 3 times in a row... all on different bands. Solo, Sabbath, and Rainbow =D Was fun but weird at the same time.

[inferiorhuman]

My favorite part of SomaFM is that I discover new artists (or get encouraged to go on a deep dive) fairly regularly. I've never bothered with Pandora or Spotify but the impression I get is that SomaFM is much better with the more niche genres.

[gffrd]

I find the same. I feel more "weight" in a choice made by a human, who has their own "map" of the music and what connects it … so, I care to know about the choices made and why they were — the context of the choice.

I'm happier with a song pairing that has some arbitrary, personal history than one that's a logical walk down a relationship model.

[huron]

But how do you find new songs for you to put on your playlists?

That’s why SomaFM and online stations like KCRW are so valuable. They’re ways to introduce new music and even new styles of music to the listeners.

[spidersouris]

I use Spotify but I loathe their recommendation algorithm. What I do when I want to discover new songs is that I search for a user playlist on r/spotify, or if there is a particular song I like, I use this website[1], which I recently discovered and which enables one to specify a song and get a list of public playlists featuring this song. It works pretty well in my case.

[1] https://www.chosic.com/spotify-playlist-search-tool-by-song-...

[rbanffy]

Here in Dublin we have Raidió Na Life, which has the best music programming of any "offline" radio. Everything spoken is in Irish, of which I understand almost nothing, but the music, is amazing.

Online, of course, SomaFM has the best streams.

[Anthony-G]

Upvoted for reminding me how good Raidió na Life used to be. I haven’t listened to it in over 10 years. I used to know the Neuromantek DJs back in the 2000s. I’m amazed to see that their show is still running! These days, when I listen to the radio, it’s usually via Saorview but I must make the effort to hook up Raidió na Life and other radio stations to my home hi-fi (now that my Squeezebox has died).

[kleiba]

Isn't that what recommender systems are for? /scnr

[rbanffy]

They can only recommend what they understand. I am not aware of any automated recommender that listens to music to make decisions on how to recommend it. For that, humans are still good.

[kleiba]

They don't have to listen to music - they just look at what people who like similar stuff to you, like in addition to that.

[rbanffy]

And that's why a human (or a model that can represent the music) can make better recommendations.

[Barrin92]

> I'd be able to listen to (essentially) any song whenever I wanted.

For a while now I've considered this to be more of a curse than anything else because at least personally I've noticed that the constant hopping replaces genuinely paying attention with quantity. I now pick a handful of albums per month or pick an NTS session I like and re-listen much more.

[atoav]

Oh my mother loves SomaFM. The thing is that you can just switch it on an it is good, and it will be in 5 years time as well without you having to do anything at all.