You are on a highway. You are likely to hear music.
July 13, 2012 3:19 PM Subscribe
Enter a starting point and an ending point, and get a road trip mix tape created for you featuring music from artists from whatever area you may be driving through. How it works.
I made a hypothetical trip from my two hometowns of Houston and Santa Barbara. Houston featured artists like Beyonce and Kenny Rogers. At the halfway point of the 102-leg journey that was generated I was given The Incredible Moses Leroy and Holy Rolling Empire. And at the end I got Dishwalla and Edie Sedgwick. Pretty cool way to generate an eclectic mix of music to listen to on those long drives. Or just because.
I made a hypothetical trip from my two hometowns of Houston and Santa Barbara. Houston featured artists like Beyonce and Kenny Rogers. At the halfway point of the 102-leg journey that was generated I was given The Incredible Moses Leroy and Holy Rolling Empire. And at the end I got Dishwalla and Edie Sedgwick. Pretty cool way to generate an eclectic mix of music to listen to on those long drives. Or just because.
This is awesome.
posted by Sticherbeast at 3:36 PM on July 13, 2012
posted by Sticherbeast at 3:36 PM on July 13, 2012
... but that algorithm is pretty loose about "local". The route on the map stays in Canada, but I'm hearing a lot of Maine artists on the way. Not that I'm complaining -- new music is good.
posted by maudlin at 3:36 PM on July 13, 2012
posted by maudlin at 3:36 PM on July 13, 2012
I'd love to use this, but my route to Saskatoon takes me through Hanna.
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 3:45 PM on July 13, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 3:45 PM on July 13, 2012 [3 favorites]
Pretty cool, I put in Springfield VA to Morattico VA which is a drive I made last weekend. I did get some Bruce Hornsby (Williamsburg), but not Dave Grohl (Springfield) or Chris Brown (Tappahannock).
posted by smoothvirus at 3:50 PM on July 13, 2012
posted by smoothvirus at 3:50 PM on July 13, 2012
Come on, the trip from Prince George to Vancouver doesn't include Chilliwack?
That's just not cool.
posted by jacquilynne at 3:55 PM on July 13, 2012 [1 favorite]
That's just not cool.
posted by jacquilynne at 3:55 PM on July 13, 2012 [1 favorite]
Ah but going to downtown DC from here gets me Thievery Corporation and Chuck Brown which it absolutely should!
posted by smoothvirus at 3:55 PM on July 13, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by smoothvirus at 3:55 PM on July 13, 2012 [1 favorite]
This is fantastic. I put in the route from my hometown (Decatur, AL) to my dad's hometown (Ridgway, IL), a trip I make at least once a year, and I'm finding some great stuff that I want to listen to more of:
Delmore Brothers
Roscoe Shelton
Ed Townsend
Earl Gaines
Gordon Terry (so that's who that highway is named after, huh)
Alabama Shakes (of course)
Uncle Bunt Stephens
Merrill Moore
Percy Mayfield
And we haven't even hit Nashville yet.
posted by ocherdraco at 4:04 PM on July 13, 2012
Delmore Brothers
Roscoe Shelton
Ed Townsend
Earl Gaines
Gordon Terry (so that's who that highway is named after, huh)
Alabama Shakes (of course)
Uncle Bunt Stephens
Merrill Moore
Percy Mayfield
And we haven't even hit Nashville yet.
posted by ocherdraco at 4:04 PM on July 13, 2012
Wow, this is really cool. (If you route through Bloomington, IL, it'll pick up Backyard Tire Fire! Yay!) The playlists seem cooler in smaller cities and rural areas than in big cities, is that happening to other people?
I always wanted something like this that would tell me what OTA radio stations were available throughout my google maps trip, or at least near major metros, so I could listen to oldies stations the whole way. But I guess anymore most road warriors have satellite radio, or just plug in their iPods. I also used to get pretty desperate to find a not-country, not-rightwing-talk station during drives in the south (I like country, but not 24/7, and not when that annoying Jesus behind the couch song was in heavy rotation), so I'd be surfing the low end of the FM dial in the hopes of finding an NPR. Only after I stopped routinely driving long road trips did I find out NPR already has a map for that.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 4:28 PM on July 13, 2012
I always wanted something like this that would tell me what OTA radio stations were available throughout my google maps trip, or at least near major metros, so I could listen to oldies stations the whole way. But I guess anymore most road warriors have satellite radio, or just plug in their iPods. I also used to get pretty desperate to find a not-country, not-rightwing-talk station during drives in the south (I like country, but not 24/7, and not when that annoying Jesus behind the couch song was in heavy rotation), so I'd be surfing the low end of the FM dial in the hopes of finding an NPR. Only after I stopped routinely driving long road trips did I find out NPR already has a map for that.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 4:28 PM on July 13, 2012
Bad. Ass. THANK YOU.
posted by davidjmcgee at 5:16 PM on July 13, 2012
posted by davidjmcgee at 5:16 PM on July 13, 2012
Nice, good find!
posted by TwoWordReview at 5:44 PM on July 13, 2012
posted by TwoWordReview at 5:44 PM on July 13, 2012
Neato!
posted by Potomac Avenue at 5:44 PM on July 13, 2012
posted by Potomac Avenue at 5:44 PM on July 13, 2012
Pretty great. Would pay for a mobile version.
The artist data is pretty funky; seems to include birthplaces.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:52 PM on July 13, 2012
The artist data is pretty funky; seems to include birthplaces.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:52 PM on July 13, 2012
Oh, that was swell! Put in San Diego to Chula Vista (my morning commute) and was pretty nice until I got to fun little number apparently called, with good reason, "Cattle Decapitation."
I passed on the rest of the playlist.
posted by SPrintF at 6:04 PM on July 13, 2012
I passed on the rest of the playlist.
posted by SPrintF at 6:04 PM on July 13, 2012
mobile version is underway, not sure if paul will make a real go of it (app store etc) or not
posted by brianwhitman at 6:37 PM on July 13, 2012
posted by brianwhitman at 6:37 PM on July 13, 2012
The artist data is pretty funky; seems to include birthplaces.
you should show up at the office some day and hear the fights we have about this. survey time, denizens of metafilter: what is Michael Jackson's "location"? What is Bjork's? What is Keith Fullerton Whitman's?
posted by brianwhitman at 6:39 PM on July 13, 2012
you should show up at the office some day and hear the fights we have about this. survey time, denizens of metafilter: what is Michael Jackson's "location"? What is Bjork's? What is Keith Fullerton Whitman's?
posted by brianwhitman at 6:39 PM on July 13, 2012
Unfortunately, my trip from Cairo to Tripoli gets directed to podcasts pretty quickly once leaving the city.
posted by Winnemac at 7:13 PM on July 13, 2012
posted by Winnemac at 7:13 PM on July 13, 2012
Coloumbia, MO to Asheville, NC had 3 very local artists on there...amazing.
posted by schyler523 at 11:13 PM on July 13, 2012
posted by schyler523 at 11:13 PM on July 13, 2012
you should show up at the office some day and hear the fights we have about this. survey time, denizens of metafilter: what is Michael Jackson's "location"? What is Bjork's? What is Keith Fullerton Whitman's?
All I know is that on this thing, 80/94 in northwest Indiana will play you the Jacksons and nothing but the Jacksons. I feel okay with that.
posted by jackflaps at 6:05 AM on July 14, 2012
All I know is that on this thing, 80/94 in northwest Indiana will play you the Jacksons and nothing but the Jacksons. I feel okay with that.
posted by jackflaps at 6:05 AM on July 14, 2012
Wow, this even has an eclectic though relatively small mix of Newfoundland artists on there!
posted by peppermind at 6:49 AM on July 14, 2012
posted by peppermind at 6:49 AM on July 14, 2012
Am I the only one really annoyed that it is playing really, really short clips instead of full songs? It is getting the artists right (Neil Young, Barenaked Ladies, for Toronto to Ottawa), but I can't actually plug this in, sit back, and enjoy...
posted by Canageek at 7:25 AM on July 14, 2012
posted by Canageek at 7:25 AM on July 14, 2012
Canageek from the "how it works" link:
"When you click 'Play mixtape' your playlist will start playing. If you are in Rdio subscriber you will hear the full songs, if not, you will hear 30 second samples."
You can of course easily find most of the songs from the generated playlist and manually make a mix, but actual portability won't really be feasible til the author makes a mobile device app. Unless you want to lug your laptop around with you in your car and have a mobile hotspot maybe?
At any rate this is a work in progress ... and it's so cool, I hope it continues to develop.
posted by PapaLobo at 8:16 AM on July 14, 2012
"When you click 'Play mixtape' your playlist will start playing. If you are in Rdio subscriber you will hear the full songs, if not, you will hear 30 second samples."
You can of course easily find most of the songs from the generated playlist and manually make a mix, but actual portability won't really be feasible til the author makes a mobile device app. Unless you want to lug your laptop around with you in your car and have a mobile hotspot maybe?
At any rate this is a work in progress ... and it's so cool, I hope it continues to develop.
posted by PapaLobo at 8:16 AM on July 14, 2012
I'll try this more later, because road trip mix tapes are pretty damn important to me, but I was disappointed that QOTSA's Songs for the Deaf didn't pop up when I entered Los Angeles to Palm Desert.
posted by Lukenlogs at 12:16 AM on July 15, 2012
posted by Lukenlogs at 12:16 AM on July 15, 2012
Wow, extremely surprised to see it does cover New Zealand!
Unfortunately, you can't get between Wellington and Auckland (8 hours distance) without running out of music from, basically, Wellington and Auckland.
Roughly equivalent playlist size, Auckland is 3x bigger by population, but still pretty expected, as Wellington has a big music scene. Pretty fun to see on a map though.
posted by Elysum at 10:21 PM on July 16, 2012
Unfortunately, you can't get between Wellington and Auckland (8 hours distance) without running out of music from, basically, Wellington and Auckland.
Roughly equivalent playlist size, Auckland is 3x bigger by population, but still pretty expected, as Wellington has a big music scene. Pretty fun to see on a map though.
posted by Elysum at 10:21 PM on July 16, 2012
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posted by maudlin at 3:33 PM on July 13, 2012 [1 favorite]