Humans vs. Robots - Three Sites Where Humans are Winning - Steve Rosenbaum - MediaBizBloggers

A few years back I was trying to get my Amtrak ticket out of what was then a new computer ATM ticket kiosk For some reason it wasn39t working and I ended up at the window Explaining my issue to the ticket agent she just looked and me and smiled and shrugged her shoulders She smirked actually As if to say well you went to the robot for help so now you39re on your ownFor folks in the editorial world where content matters magazines music labels and such there39s been a quiet but ever present fear that somehow the robots were winning That it was just a matter of time before the web was awash in free content and the algorithms would arrive to somehow parse all the bits into coherent mediaBut today there39s a new dawn rising on the web And shockingly it39s ruled by humansDon39t believe me Well here are just a handful of examples of where humans are increasingly the special sauce that makes the difference between commoditized content and real valuable premium contentSo for those of you who think your job is about to be outsourced to a robot here are three examples of why you may be safer than you thinkFirst eMusic When I walked into the offices of eMusic just blocks away from Grand Central Station in New York the first thing I was struck by was the size of the operation I39ve come to imagine that internet companies are small and getting smaller in terms of 39head count39 but eMusic has HUMANS Lots of them And most interestingly they39re creating content There are 120 or so editorial folks on the team working to find gather curate and add editorial value around the music they offer their subscribers In fact the editorial efforts of this team are part of what makes the eMusic offering a great service Sure the idea that you can download rather than stream music is appealing as well but the editorial 39vibe39 of the service makes the music service feel engaged and thoughtful rather than just offering a commoditized service of songs by the pound Rolling Stone Magazine called eMusic quotiTunes cheaper cooler cousinquot Wow No human editorial folks at iTuneIf you want to get a taste of the passion for music that lives at eMusic read this staff blog http17dotscom not produced by the company and you39ll get an instant burst of just the kind of editorial energy that drives the company Hardly something we can expect Robots to doIn the music space there are plenty of examples of how humans beat robots Labels themselves are human curation choosing what artists to sign and which to ignore And music recommendation services like Pandora have their core DNA in human cataloging of genre39s styles and thematic relationshipsThis may come as a surprise but the core underlying value of services that seem robotic are often in fact human One example is Pandora which is based on the Music Genome database The database is based on and tagged by humans It labels characteristics of musicamp8211 including rhythm instrumentation melody orchestration arrangement and lyrics The results create a musical 39identity39 According to the Pandora Web site quotEach song in the Music Genome Project is analyzed using up to 400 distinct musical characteristics by a trained music analyst These attributes capture not only the musical identity of a song but also the many significant qualities that are relevant to understanding the musical preferences of listenersquotAnd finally there39s IndieFeedcom They go so far as to take on the evil music machines with a direct blow quotRobots should not manage your music discoveryquot says their web site quotWe are humans just like you we use our ears to locate great music and then we share what we foundquot and their mission statement reads quotBecome the trusted reliable source for new music on the internet create an equitable promotion model that grants bargaining and financial power to artists and gives control and meaningful choice to consumersquotIndieFeed is a free service founded by CEO Chris MacDonald which provides a filtered music selection that is focused on breaking new bands with human curated content The sites tag line is quotBest new tracks free from humans who love musicquot Their part of an emerging music discovery industry that is driven by human editorial talentSure robots may win as Soccer players or even poker players There39s no doubt some things that robots can do well Maybe even better than us But when it comes to things that involve an esthetic eye or an editorial voice all the evidence points to Humans beating RobotsSteven Rosenbaum is a curator author filmmaker and entrepreneur He is the CEO of Magnifynet a Realtime Video Curation engine for publishers brands and Websites His book quotCuration Nationquot is slated to be published this spring by McGrawHill BusinessRead more httpwwwbusinessinsidercomyoutube201011ixzz14n0xhK8z

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