“音乐大脑”的读心术

    Echo Nest是一家私人公司，没有披露财务信息，也没有透露它是否盈利。不过自从成立以来，它的增长非常迅速。它的总部设立在一个安静街区的一幢红砖房里，现在已经拥有48名员工。今年夏天，该公司宣布它从诺维斯特风险投资公司（Norwest Venture Partners）获得了新一轮1,730万美元的风险投资，使它的资金总额达到了2,600万美元。现在，这家公司正在筹划向其它领域发展。耶汉目前正着手打造一些能够与音乐互动的工具。比如一种专门为电台DJ提供的播放列表，它可以把好听的歌曲片断混合在一起。此外还有一个叫做“swing-ify”的应用，可以通过控制声音数据，来修改几乎任何一首歌的节拍记号。比如，如果你在这个应用上播放枪炮玫瑰乐队的名曲《Sweet Child O' Mine》，旋律就会扭曲得好似拉斯维加斯的靡靡之音，而不是舞台摇滚的调子。（这个应用很有趣，但并不公开发售。）

    与此同时，惠特曼一直努力通过整理音乐数据和单个听众的偏好，来进一步优化搜索结果。今年10月，Echo Nest公司向它的API中添加了一些品味资料工具，帮助开发者们匹配一些看似与音乐无关的偏好——比如政治倾向。（公司的试验发现，共和党人更喜欢肯尼•切斯尼，民主党人喜欢蕾哈娜，几乎人人都爱批头士。）

    Echo Nest的方法可谓别具一格，同时像Gracenote和Rovi等公司也在编辑和运作音乐数据。【比如苹果（Apple）的iTunes就依赖Gracenote的技术。】有些服务，比如Pandora，也建立起了足以与Echo Nest相竞争的专有系统。最终，“知识库”的深度可能是该公司最好的资产。MOG公司首席执行官海曼如此解释他的公司为什么会找上Echo Nest：“我们喜欢它们的成果。”

    译者：朴成奎

    Privately held, Echo Nest does not disclose financials or whether it is yet profitable. It has grown quickly since its founding; today there are 48 employees tinkering away in its red-brick office on a quiet block. And this summer it announced a new, $17.3 million round of venture funding led by Norwest Venture Partners, bringing its total haul to $26 million.

    Now the company is pushing into other areas. Jehan is focused on creating tools to interact with music. One example: a new kind of deejay-friendly playlist that blends snippets of songs that sound good together instead of mixing entire tracks. Another app can "swing-ify" music by manipulating sonic data so that pretty much any song can be modified to a different time signature. Play "Sweet Child O' Mine" through the app, for instance, and the sound is subtly tweaked to make it seem as though Guns N' Roses were playing a smoky Vegas lounge set rather than arena rock. (The app is fun, but not for sale.)

    Meanwhile, Whitman has been trying to further refine discovery results by collating music data with individual listeners' preferences. In October, Echo Nest added taste-profile tools to its API that may help developers match musical taste with even seemingly far-out preferences -- like political affiliation. (The company's experiments found that Republicans favor Kenny Chesney, Democrats prefer Rihanna, and the Beatles appeal to, well, everybody.)

    While Echo Nest's approach is unique, other firms, like Gracenote and Rovi, also compile and market music data. (Apple's (AAPL) iTunes relies on Gracenote, for instance.) Some services, notably Pandora, have built proprietary systems that could compete with Echo Nest. Ultimately, the depth of "the knowledge" may be the firm's best asset. MOG CEO Hyman explains that's why his company went with Echo Nest. "We liked their results," says Hyman.