Music falls easily into genres, but that doesn't mean your taste does.
Music easily falls into genres, but that doesn’t mean your taste does.
Radio veteran Eric Neumann has watched the rise of internet music providers latch on to algorithms (everyone’s favorite topic in the tech world), but thought it didn’t quite fit with the way we naturally listen to music. “Coming up with an algorithm that says if you like Stevie Wonder, you are going to like the Temptations or you are going to like Dianna Ross, well that’s a little bit obvious,” said Neumann. For him, creating a better online radio station meant personalizing the music not to categories or genres, but to the mix of what a particular listener wanted to hear.
Instead, his Denver-based company called Mad Genius Radio seeks to personalize music the way a listener would, assuming of course that listener had access to millions of songs (including ones they’ve never heard before) and could suggest new music.
Neumann (pictured left) likens the process to what happens when we are in cars. “If you think back to the car, when you had your presents in your FM radio, when you switch from one station to another, you are probably switching genres, but yet most people don’t consciously think of it that way,” said Neumann. Mad Genius Radio builds on that concept. It takes those combinations – the hard rock, classical and hip hop station for one listener, show tunes, pop and golden oldies for another listener – and mixes them together in a way and frequency that is personalized.
“I’ve met very few people who aren’t eclectic in their music taste. There is no rationalization for what they like and what they dislike,” said Neumann.
And his approach isn’t to judge – its to provide you with the unique blend of the music you want to hear.
Thumbs Down to the Thumbs Down Approach
One way Mad Genius Radio distinguishes itself is in its approach to listener feedback. Instead of a simple thumbs up, thumbs down approach, the company wants to know if you like it and how often you want to hear it. Like listening to The Beatles with a tiny bit of Outcast thrown in? Done. It’s your style they care about, not whether outsiders will get your personalized mix. “We are the only ones out there with a rating system. If you like a song but you don’t want to hear a lot of it, rate it a 1,” Neumann said. The scale extends to five.
Don’t like an artist? Unlike other platforms, Mad Genius Radio allows you to delete them for good. Or at least until you change your mind. Want really deep cuts of a prolific artist – they can handle that too.
Their approach seems to be working. In the radio world, a key metric was time spent listening. Neumann still uses that as a measure of success. “In beta, we had several hundred outsiders testing this…. and we were regularly seeing 7-8 hours a week time spent listening and now we are getting closer to 11-12 time spent listening,” said Neumann. He points out that Pandora gets about 3 hours of listening time on average.
From Ownership to Access
The longer listening times are likely a mix of the personalization and the lack of annoying commercials. Instead of a free model based on advertising, Mad Genius Radio approached the concept as a subscription-based service. While the app is currently free, Neumann says it will be around $5 per month or $48 per year.
In addition to cutting out the annoyance of those ads, the Mad Genius Radio model seeks to put more money back into the pockets of artists (and of course their own coffers). While some companies have openly fought artists about royalty rates, “We are at the opposite end of the spectrum saying royalty rates should actually go up,” said Neumann.
“Its just math. When you charge subscriptions, you can afford to pay more [to the artists] and the current status already have us paying 80% more than Pandora pays. And we are fine with that. We would rather see royalties get paid and help recoup what’s happened in the music industry in the last 15 years,” said Neumann. “We want to help make the music ecosystem a little bit healthier again,” he added.
This combination of business-smarts (Neumann was previously a CFO and says he understands every line item in the radio business) with an appreciation for artists seems like a winning message.
The company is still working on new features and invites its users to weigh in on the subject, so they get exactly what they want out of an online radio app.
The Denver-based company is looking to hire a software developer, likely to help out on these kinds of projects.
And remember, a lifelong radio veteran like Neumann thinks “its natural for people to be eclectic,” so go ahead and mix music to your heart’s content.
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