Creating Communities Around Music Playlists

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I love watching ideas turn into reality. Mike, from www.FIQL.com, recently sent me this mail because comments were closed on the post in question:

Hey Josh, ran across an old post of yours here:
https://blogs.msdn.com/jledgard/archive/2004/06/07/150302.aspx

Thought you might be interested in a site we've built. FIQL.com. it's a site all about playlists and you can upload playlists that you've created on itunes as well as listen to other's people's playlists (Well at least samples). Anyway, check it out - i think it's a lot of what you were talking about. EXCEPT, that part about mapping. That wouldn't work so well on our site because people create playlists for the most interesting reasons. Some people have a playlist all about snow or some other whacky theme. So a similar mapping may not necessarily indicate similar taste. Anyway we're exploring the whole recommendation thing but right now it seems human recommendations work better on our site.
Would love to get your take.

Here is my take:

  • Its a great way to discover new music. iTunes has something similar, but you are limited to picking only iTunes music and the rating schema is not as cool as this.
  • I can upload my playlists from the web site... this type of service should have a plug-in for real, iTunes, or windows media player that automatically uploads playlists I create so I don't have to go through an extra step. Then I could interact with the service through my client of choice.
  • Its interesting to see the availability comparison on artists between iTunes, WalMart, and MSN.
  • The site needs some sort of notification mechanism when someone adds a new playlist in an area I'm interested in or containing my favorite artists, etc. RSS is nice, but this would be another area where a plug-in with a music client would shine.
  • I couldn't easily figure out how to download the playlist to my machine. I should be able to download them and be told what Music I don't have and given the option to purchase it on the site of my choosing.
  • But a pretty cool first effort. It will be interesting to see if this sort of social service evolves. IMO, its a gap waiting to be filled in by one of the big online Music businesses that would be a differentiating feature.