iTunes Signature Maker (Jason Freeman)

Here's one of the coolest Java applets I've seen in a long time. The iTunes Signature Maker analyzes your iTunes music library, and creates a personalized sonic "signature" for you based on your favorite music.

Here's how creator Jason Freeman describes it:

People often ask me what music I listen to, and I find it difficult to describe my enormous music collection in just a few sentences. So I created iTSM to answer in sound a question I cannot answer in words.

iTSM selects a small number of your "favorite" tracks based on some simple selection criteria, such as the number of times you have played them or the rating you have assigned them. Then it analyzes the audio content of these files, combining a small bit of each of them to create the signature.

Maybe you'll load your iTunes signature onto your iPod, e-mail it to some friends, share it in our signature gallery, or stick it on your home page. Maybe it will help you gauge your compatibility with your next blind date: "She seems nice enough, but her iTunes signature is just so atonal! Should I go with my heart or with my ear?" Or maybe an iTunes signature will figure prominently into a political attack ad: "If you're mad at him for raising your taxes, polluting our environment, and cutting the education budget, just wait until you hear the music he listens to…"

Since Carrie and I share the same iTunes music library (about 10,000 songs now) this is a composite musical signature generated by ITSM. It's about a minute and forty-five seconds long, in MP3 format (96 bps):

Barry and Carrie's iTunes Signature (MP3 download, 1.14 MB)