Music Explorer FX v1.1: Now with “Fame” Control

Version 1.1 of the JavaFX-based music discovery application, Music Explorer FX has been released. You can try it here:

This version is mostly about performance and stability improvements and it’s also the first version to be released under JavaFX 1.2. Additionally, it sports a new feature: the “Fame” knob:

For those not familiar with how the application works, MEFX will present you with artist recommendations based on an initial artist. Pictured below, for example, is a web of six artist recommendations that sound similar to the  popular alternative metal band, “Breaking Benjamin”.

One potential issue with this kind of search though is that if you are a fan of BB, then you are likely to have already heard of many of these bands. This is where the Fame knob comes in. If you dial down the Fame knob, indicating that you want less famous recommendations, and rerun the search, you’ll now get these results:

These bands are still very similar to “Breaking Benjamin”, they just happen to be less popular. Note that the green “popularity” gauges are considerably lower than the artists on the first search. This can be a great way to explore the long tail of music.

The Fame knob works in the other direction as well. Turn it to the right (positive) and you’re guaranteed to get some mainstream results that even the RIAA would be proud of.

This release also boasts notable performance improvements and some crazy caching techniques.  In particular, I encourage you to check out the much improved image gallery (bring up your favorite artist, and click on the “photos” icon). For a more detailed rundown of MEFX, check out this post.

So whether you’re an old friend of MEFX, or a you stumbled across this post in search of what happened to that popular 80s musical, go ahead and give it a try.