Patent ID: 7860862

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, over a network, a list associated with a listener, the list identifying a plurality of first songs; retrieving music data for each of the first songs; evaluating a plurality of characteristics of the music data for each of the first songs; evaluating the plurality of characteristics for each of a plurality of test songs, each test song associated with a subjective classification; determining a multidimensional distribution of the test songs based on the characteristics; and selecting the characteristics to be used as dimensions of a multidimensional space based on the subjective classifications of the test songs and the multidimensional distribution of the test songs; mapping each of the plurality of first songs to a corresponding first location in the multidimensional space of at least three dimensions to determine a scatter, the scatter comprises a three dimensional representation of each of the first songs, each dimension of the multidimensional space associated with at least one of the plurality of characteristics; fitting the scatter to a multidimensional figure in the multidimensional space within the volume of the multidimensional figure; retrieving music data for each of a plurality of second songs; evaluating the plurality of characteristics of the music data for each of the second songs; mapping each of the plurality of second songs to a corresponding second location in the multidimensional space, such that at least a subset of the plurality of second songs falls within the volume of the multidimensional figure; and selecting at least one of the at least a subset of the plurality of second songs for recommendation to the listener.