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by zero_bias 29 days ago
Cannot call lastfm algorithm advanced in any sense. Just opened Amon Tobin page: "similar artists: Kid Koala and DJ Kush", which is an impressively shallow understanding of the last 20 (!!) years of his life, and this happened with almost every artist on the platform, because the average sum of tastes of every listener does not exist in reality. E.g. in the case of Amon Tobin, Kid Koala is the average of similarities between early albums and recent releases, which is just not true, his music cannot be averaged throughout his career. I love my Web 2.0 youth, but the average similarity algorithm doesnt deserve praise. Its not better, its nostalgia and lack of faang-style unlimited greed which confused with better quality

Edit: of course spotify-style recommendations are much much worse, I just mean that lastfm doesnt have good algorithm either because artists are not consistent in releases. What is an average between electronic cult classic "The last resort" and every other Trentemoller album in strict indie rock style? This average does not exist
1 comments
smcg 28 days ago
do you know of a better recommendation algorithm?
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srfwx 25 days ago
I am unfortunately a bit late to this conversation but I've been building a music exploration website in my spare time, which has similar artist recommendations too. https://explore.band Still work in progress but curious to know what you think if you get a chance to try it
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zero_bias 24 days ago
Checked with vast Amon Tobin discography with all his aliases as his discography is a very complicated edge case for any recommendation algorithm: Stone Giants/Figueroa is listened by people who like Amon Tobin but the former is pure indie rock and folk and should not show Amon Tobin itself but more something like Current93. Don’t know how to solve this issue but it but it break any recommendation algorithm for last 20 years

But very nice ui, looks smooth and useful

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zero_bias 28 days ago
No, why it should prevent me from describing vast issues with current solutions?
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FelipeCortez 28 days ago
RateYourMusic’s recommendations are solid
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