{"id":1261,"date":"2009-02-12T08:53:14","date_gmt":"2009-02-12T16:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2009\/02\/following_crumb_trails\/"},"modified":"2009-02-12T08:53:14","modified_gmt":"2009-02-12T16:53:14","slug":"following_crumb_trails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/following_crumb_trails.php","title":{"rendered":"Following crumb trails"},"content":{"rendered":"

On-line social network systems and user-curated music services have created a new way for individuals to share their thoughts, their favorite music, their random travels. But they’ve also created something else — a trail of evidence about what people actually choose, not just what they say<\/i> they like. And any respectable market researcher will tell you the absolute value of  observing actual choice over stated preference.<\/p>\n

Case in point: iTunes<\/a>. Those of us who use the software to burn or buy our music libraries have created a personal archive of stuff we like. If we really<\/i> like an artist, we’ll have multiple songs from them. If our tastes tend to cluster in certain genres, the archive will provide direct evidence of that, as well. Even if we’re all over the map, there are patterns and connections within our aggregate choices ripe with opportunity for discovery.<\/p>\n

Another case in point: Pandora<\/a>. The on-line music service allows its registered users to build customized ”radio stations” that play only artists ”like” the requested artists. Further, they allow the user to craft and hone those stations over time by flagging songs that suit them, and downgrading songs that don’t.<\/p>\n

As a result, through two software services, I don’t have to tell you who I like. You can actually observe the aggregated evidence of my music choices. And if you offer me a service that can get me more<\/i> of what I’m passionate about, I’m happy to share that evidence with you.<\/p>\n

Which brings us to systems like SonicLiving<\/a>, a live concert database that draws on my iTunes library and Pandora radio stations to suggest upcoming shows in my town. In a few short steps, the system flagged three upcoming concerts by favorite artists that I didn’t know about (because I honestly wasn’t looking). Then it let me flag my interest in those shows, share that interest with all my Facebook friends through its Facebook application, and buy tickets if and when I felt like it.<\/p>\n

Instead of me diving into the mass of options in my local paper, on Ticketmaster, or in other oceans of random listings, SonicLiving draws on the choices I’ve already<\/i> made to curate opportunities for me.  <\/p>\n

This particular system lacks a comprehensive events database (as does the larger world). But it holds enough events to immediately serve its purpose. More importantly, it shows what’s possible in a world of on-line social systems and user-influenced web services. There are new tidal waves of audience preferences and passions out there — in playlists, blog posts, user-generated music reviews, share-this-with-a-friend networks, and the like. The artful manager will be finding strategic places to ride those waves. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On-line social network systems and user-curated music services have created a new way for individuals to share their thoughts, their favorite music, their random travels. But they’ve also created something else — a trail of evidence about what people actually choose, not just what they say they like. And any respectable market researcher will tell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1261\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}