Merge

Abstract

The advent of digital music has brought with it plenty of tools for discovering new music. From online music blogs to crowd sourced recommendation services, modern music lovers have no shortage of resources for seeking out new tunes and old favorites to listen to wherever they are. However, current music discovery tools do not address a significant aspect of the music discovery process; music is an incredibly social form of art that connects users. The social element of music discovery is so inherent to the process of music discovery that some users only listen to new songs or artists on the suggestion of a trusted friend. Currently, the only tools that users have to facilitate this social music discovery require users to actively participate in this process. Merge seeks to remedy this by automating the process of music discovery and selection based on music preferences of peers as well as environmental factors and listening history.