10.12.2006

Analyze Your Tunes!

Yesterday I discovered MusicIP. I am hooked. Here's their description:

Do you have tons of digital music, but not much time? Are you in the mood for great tunes, but don’t have the patience—or the interest—in thumbing through your tracks? MusicIP makes it simple. Pick one song. Click one button. Get one amazing playlist that includes the perfect tracks from every corner of your collection—instantly.
And my description:
1) Download the software
2) Run the program
3) It opens up to a player-like window
4) Let it begin to analyze your iTunes library or music folder if you are not an iTunes user.
5) It will take hours or even a day or two to analyze a large library. At nearly 8000 strong, my library should be completely analyzed by tomorrow afternoon.
6) Even before the full analysis is complete you can begin to harness its powers.
7) Select a song or several songs from your library and click the 'Mix' button (you can vary the preferences of the mixing; I changed it from 12 tracks to 50 and increased the preference for 'Artist Style' and 'Variety').
8) MusicIP will create a nice little mix that you can listen to in MusicIP or export to iTunes or other player with a click of the 'Send to Player' button.
9) Name the mix or leave it at the default and MusicIP will wipe it clean and start again the next time you create a new mix.
10) The mix automatically starts in the player when the button is clicked.

Great way to get a good mix without having to rifle through 8000 tunes. An example:
I selected "Slow Moves" by Jose Gonzalez. MusicIP put together a great mix of 50 tunes, the first 10 being...
1) "Monument" Mirah
2) "Old Adam" Hem
3) "Stolen Car" Patty Griffin
4) "There's No Invincible Disguise That Lasts All Day" The Microphones
5) "Twilight" David Gray
6) "Kingsport Town" Cat Power
7) "The Rape of the World" Tracy Chapman
8) "Goat and Ram" Matt Sweeney and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
9) "O Morro Nao Tem Vez" Antonio Carlos Jobim
10) "Slow Moves" Jose Gonzalez

Not all exactly the same genre of music but close enough to one another in style to set a nice mood for whatever mood you are in. I will experiment more later. I am anxious to see what it does when I select a handful of widely different styles. Will it create an eclectic mix?

MusicIP also introduces you to new music based upon your collection but I have not explored this yet. At first glance it looks to be obscure artists who possibly supply info to MusicIP themselves.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I also love MusicIP Mixer. See several posts on some of the cool features here: http://kelstew.blogspot.com/search/label/MusicIP

Anonymous said...

Hey Chris! My name is Rachel and I'm part of the MusicIP team. Thanks for writing about MusicIP Mixer! Have you tried out the premium version? Send me an email and I'll send you a complimentary "thanks!" license key so you can try out all the power tools and premium features in MusicIP Mixer.

And if you ever have any questions or ideas for how we can improve, I'd love to hear from you as well.

Rachel
rachel[at]musicip[dot]com

Anonymous said...

wow chris, the power of blogs...you get 'complimentary' stuff. i'll check out MusicIP this weekend.