Summary: What if you could predict who people's taste in movies based on their taste in music? Or, conversely, what type of music fans of certain films might like based on what music they listen to? Brian Whitman of The Echo Nest, a music data company, recently figured out how to do just that. The Echo Nest collects “hundreds of data points” from all over the internet to assemble people's musical identity. And from that, the company can draw some pretty interesting conclusions. For example, Whitman's study shows that fans of Jay-Z are also likely to enjoy Toy Story and Fight Club. Fans of sci-fi films are predicted to have fairly eclectic tastes -- enjoying artists from Jimi Hendrix and Lady Gaga -- while fans of fantasy films are shown to have more middle-of-the-road pop tastes. And further conclusions can be extrapolated by examining defining characteristics of those artists and films. “There’s a lot of personality in the music you listen to,” explains Whitman. “And we’re just showing over and over again that there’s something to be looking at here.”
