MoodLogic
Encyclopedia
MoodLogic was a software company founded in 1998 by Tom Sulzer, Christian Pirkner, Elion Chin and Andreas Weigend
, and was one of the first online music recommendation systems. The company obtained ratings on over 1 million songs by over 50,000 distinct listeners as part of its proprietary method for modeling user preference space.
to allow users to collaboratively profile music by mood. Each user has a certain number of "credits" they can use to identify song profiles. Credits could be obtained by either paying for them or profiling songs.
This software allowed the user to generate "mood" based playlists based on the mood of the user. The program could also mix a playlist based on a selected song. This would return a playlist with songs of similar tempo
, mood
, genre
, etc. The software was also capable of organizing a music collection based on a "fingerprint" of the song. Moodlogic would generate this fingerprint of the song, upload it to the server and wait for a response. This process could take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes depending on computer power, internet connection speed and server load. Once the corrected tag information had been downloaded, the ID3
tag was updated and written to the file. This meant a user could have a collection of incorrectly tagged mp3's and the software would be able to correctly identify, tag, and even organize the songs into folders based on artist.
Moodlogic was bought by All Media Guide
, the company that runs allmusic.com, in May 2006. It is not yet clear whether All Media intends to resume development and reactivate the community. Prominent employees and consultants to the company included musicologist Dr. Robert Gjerdingen, psychologist Daniel Levitin
and record producer/e-music.com co-founder Sandy Pearlman
.
"Effective March 3, 2008, Macrovision announces the end of life (EOL) of the Moodlogic music management and recommendation software. Service will be discontinued due to intensive operational and infrastructure resources are required to sustain the application. Macrovision’s efforts in music recommendation will continue through the AMG Data Services Tapestry business-to-business product."
Rovi holds over 4,000 issued or pending patents and patent applications worldwide [including those by MoodLogic], and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, with numerous offices across the United States and around the world including Japan, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom."
Andreas Weigend
Andreas Weigend is a former Chief Scientist at Amazon.com and the author of over 100 scientific papers on the application of machine learning techniques to finance and business problems....
, and was one of the first online music recommendation systems. The company obtained ratings on over 1 million songs by over 50,000 distinct listeners as part of its proprietary method for modeling user preference space.
Software
In addition to their web presence, the company created a software application that uses a central databaseDatabase
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
to allow users to collaboratively profile music by mood. Each user has a certain number of "credits" they can use to identify song profiles. Credits could be obtained by either paying for them or profiling songs.
This software allowed the user to generate "mood" based playlists based on the mood of the user. The program could also mix a playlist based on a selected song. This would return a playlist with songs of similar tempo
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
, mood
Mood (psychology)
A mood is a relatively long lasting emotional state. Moods differ from emotions in that they are less specific, less intense, and less likely to be triggered by a particular stimulus or event....
, genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
, etc. The software was also capable of organizing a music collection based on a "fingerprint" of the song. Moodlogic would generate this fingerprint of the song, upload it to the server and wait for a response. This process could take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes depending on computer power, internet connection speed and server load. Once the corrected tag information had been downloaded, the ID3
ID3
ID3 is a metadata container most often used in conjunction with the MP3 audio file format. It allows information such as the title, artist, album, track number, and other information about the file to be stored in the file itself....
tag was updated and written to the file. This meant a user could have a collection of incorrectly tagged mp3's and the software would be able to correctly identify, tag, and even organize the songs into folders based on artist.
Patents
Chief Scientist Rehan Khan and his team filed a number of patents, 2 of which have currently been granted: US Patent 6539395 "Method for creating a database for comparing music" and US Patent 7277766 "Method and system for analyzing digital audio files." The latter patented a system for audio fingerprinting that was fast, compact and robust.2006 buy-out
Despite a high profile launch, and apparently active community, the website was short-lived. The last release of the software was on November 13, 2003, with version 2.7.1. The last official traffic on the forums was in late 2004. Repeated forum posts by users after that time resulted in no response, and inquiries from subscribers ceased to be answered, although the software database seemed to continue operating.Moodlogic was bought by All Media Guide
All Media Guide
All Media Guide , is the company which owns and maintains Allmusic, Allgame and Allmovie. AMG was founded in 1990 by popular-culture archivist Michael Erlewine....
, the company that runs allmusic.com, in May 2006. It is not yet clear whether All Media intends to resume development and reactivate the community. Prominent employees and consultants to the company included musicologist Dr. Robert Gjerdingen, psychologist Daniel Levitin
Daniel Levitin
Professor Daniel J. Levitin, Ph.D. is a prominent American cognitive psychologist, neuroscientist, record producer, musician, and writer...
and record producer/e-music.com co-founder Sandy Pearlman
Sandy Pearlman
Sandy Pearlman is an American music producer, artist manager, professor, poet, songwriter, and once was a record company executive...
.
2008 move to Macrovision
The MoodLogic site resolves to Macrovision's site with this message:"Effective March 3, 2008, Macrovision announces the end of life (EOL) of the Moodlogic music management and recommendation software. Service will be discontinued due to intensive operational and infrastructure resources are required to sustain the application. Macrovision’s efforts in music recommendation will continue through the AMG Data Services Tapestry business-to-business product."
2009 renaming to Rovi Corporation
On July 15, 2009, Macrovision Solutions Corporation was renamed Rovi Corporation. According to the company's website, "Rovi Corporation is focused on revolutionizing the digital entertainment landscape by delivering solutions that enable consumers to intuitively discover new entertainment from many sources and locations. The company also provides extensive entertainment discovery solutions for television, movies, music and photos to its customers in the consumer electronics, cable and satellite, entertainment and online distribution markets. These solutions, complemented by industry leading entertainment data, create the connections between people and technology, and enable them to discover and manage entertainment in its most enjoyable form.Rovi holds over 4,000 issued or pending patents and patent applications worldwide [including those by MoodLogic], and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, with numerous offices across the United States and around the world including Japan, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom."
External links
- Story about the development of MoodLogic's Magnet Browser interface
- "Call the tune" from The Sydney Morning HeraldThe Sydney Morning HeraldThe Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
- "Start-up finds Muze with mood music" from CNETCNETCNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...