Big data beats

This is amazing. Big data identification of all the musical genres and where they sit relative to each other. Here's the project description:

This is an ongoing attempt at an algorithmically-generated, readability-adjusted scatter-plot of the musical genre-space, based on data tracked and analyzed for 1536 genres by Spotify. The calibration is fuzzy, but in general down is more organic, up is more mechanical and electric; left is denser and more atmospheric, right is spikier and bouncier.

Click anything to hear an example of what it sounds like.

Click the » on a genre to see a map of its artists.

Be calmly aware that this may periodically expand, contract or combust.

Just hit the link to see what it means. It also has an associated Spotify playlist. Just look at how amazing this thing is, and how it's all free, and how you can listen to all of the music with a (ad-ridden) free Spotify account or for a cheap-as-chips monthly subscription.

We live in an age of freaking wonders. Discover new realms of music you never knew you'd like, get a ton of surplus, and not a dime of the increased value of the Spotify subscription shows up in the GDP stats except if it gets more subscribers as consequence.