Many radio stations play compulsory playlists of the same repetitive pop crap. The alternative is listening to your own custom playlist on your computer or mp3-player or if you want to be suprised, use shuffle. There are however still radio independent DJ’s that pride themselves in making perfect playlists for you to listen to. But are they better than the shuffle button, because they introduce you to new things?

Music Machinery is having a semi-scientific study as to whether a radio DJ, a shuffled playlist or an algorithmically composed playlist is better, according to listeners. You can read more about it and participate here. Their study results so far: the algorithmic DJ is best, the human worst. The study is far from over, so please participate.

The interesting notion of this Turing test is that maybe computers, machines, AI, call it what you like, can make music just a well as humans can. This scares many people. They believe it will put them out of business. But that inevitably pops up the question: are you in it for the money or for the love of music? Humans will keep making music for the love of music, even if machines make better/different music. In then end machines are an extension of ourselves, so I’d rather have a machine help me make better music, then me by myself making shitty music.

It’s like complaining about people using electric guitars and effects to make impossible music. It’s like people complaining about synthesisers , arpeggiators and all sorts of electronic aids to make impossible sounds and music. In the end, it’s tools to make better music. And if even human creativity can be emulated, why not? Ask Emmy and Emily Howell