MuBu Monday launched its sound-based music recommendation service.
MuBu is focused on leading consumers to new music enlightenment and providing personalized music recommendations based on an individual’s reactions to a series of sound clips. MuBu’s patent-pending diagnostic technology analyzes responses to sounds and creates a unique musical profile-or “fingerprint” for every person using the site.
By intelligently anticipating personal musical preferences, MuBu provides consumers, record labels and retailers with a new channel to access, distribute and buy the full spectrum of quality music available.
Online or offline, accessing the complete array of music available is a major problem facing consumers, record labels, and retailers. Today, there are 90,000 artists and three million songs-but only a fraction of those are ever heard by the general public. Yet, the demand for music over the Internet is accelerating. More than 16 million digital music downloads take place daily. Jupiter Communications projects online music sales will hit $2.6 billion by 2003.
MuBu is designed to anticipate individual music preferences — even those yet to form. Unlike text-based music search engines that require users to type in a song title or an artist’s name, MuBu helps music lovers discover new music even if they don’t necessarily know what they’re looking for.
“MuBu sonifies searches,” said John Adams, chief executive officer and founder of MuBu. “Word-driven searches simply cannot deliver the new music discovery and enlightenment that MuBu has created. The founding management team behind MuBu understands that music is not about keywords and Boolean logic. Music is about SOUND. So, we’ve created a purely musical experience that’s fun, easy-to-use and completely personalized.”
MuBu instantly connects individuals to music they like-irrespective of genre, popularity or category. Combining human ears with Internet technology, Mubu provides music recommendations to people by gauging their emotional, intuitive reaction to a series of sound clips. Each visit to MuBu’s Web site, MuBu.com, results in an entirely different experience. No two visits are alike. Besides controlling the pace, flow and volume-visitors drive their entire MuBu experience.
MuBu provides individuals with easy-to-follow steps to help them create their own unique musical experience or fingerprint:
When visitors enter the MuBu Web site, MuBu.com, they may choose from a variety of entry points. These touch-points include a combination of recognizable music genres (i.e. rock, jazz, classical, pop and country); more narrowly-defined preferences (i.e. smooth jazz, ambient, drum n’ bass); and entirely new constellations or music categories comprised of words that represent lifestyles and evoke moods or attitudes: (i.e. tattoos and pool cues, jive and beatnik, orchestral bop and celebration of women.)
After selecting an entry point, users are presented with a short list of 8-10 second sound clips based on their prior selection through the company’s diagnostic technology. Users have the opportunity to indicate whether the clips match their style of music. According to the company’s internal research, most people can determine whether they like or dislike a song within the first five seconds. MuBu’s objective is to obtain users’ immediate, impulsive reaction to these sound clips.
Users may choose to take another related sound test with additional music clips, or immediately receive MuBu’s seven song recommendations using a button labeled “enlighten me.” These recommendations are presented as 30-second sound clips.
This step allows users to further refine and develop their results through two methods — sonically through their own musical profile/fingerprint based on prior selections — or by using sonically appropriate adjectives if a user wants musi
c with a more “funky”, “jazzy” or “twangy” sound.
MuBu facilitates music buys over the Internet by directing users to its retail partners’ sites. MuBu’s fulfillment partners include: Amazon.com
