What if those online music services that collect your tastes and
recommend new jams were headquartered right down the road? And what if they were
run by friendly folks actively working to wow you with care packages for your
ears that you could drop by and pick up? Okay, so the “care packages for your
ears” are compact discs. And the Internet isn’t serving them up—the library
is.
CD of the Month Club
Some would tell you that next to commercial streaming music
services like Spotify and Rdio, libraries’ aging compact disc collections are
fossils. So why do we even bother to keep our music collections? Why not just
cede the victory to our digital overlords and call it a day?
A lot of things justify maintaining and promoting physical
music collections. One of my favorites is a service we’ve developed at the
Cincinnati public library. The CD of the Month Club builds on the premise of
music discovery services such as Pandora and was, in no small part, inspired by
LJ 2012 Movers & Shakers Matthew Moyer and Andrew Coulon’s stellar
Personalized Playlists program at the Jacksonville Public Library (ow.ly/uk8Ad).
New club members fill out a form (either on paper or online at ow.ly/uk8qm) and
answer a few questions about the kinds of music they typically enjoy. Each
month, they’ll receive a mystery CD, chosen specifically for them by a team of
music-loving library staff and shipped to their favorite branch. Before sending
the selections we place a slip in the front of the jewel case, sometimes with a
personal note. When the discs are ready to be picked up, patrons are notified
just as with other holds.
We invite members to determine the adventurousness of their
selections on a scale between zero and five (zero being, “don’t bother sending
me something I’ve never heard before” and five being, “I dare you to blow my
mind”). In just over a year, our club has grown to nearly 700 members, and we
recently sailed past our 4,000th personal CD recommendation.
Behind the scenes
The process we follow in making our choices isn’t all that
complex. We create Word documents for members that include their preferences and
a history of our past selections for them, as well as any feedback they’ve
provided. The profiles are organized and linked to a spreadsheet on which we
also keep track of statistics and manage workflow. We’re transitioning to a
newly created database that will give members the ability to view and edit their
own profiles as well as rate and review each CD they receive.
The real fun is picking the CDs. Presumably most people join the
club because they want to be exposed to new things, so we work with their
preferences to begin. The human element is what sets our program apart from
algorithm-driven services. We make educated guesses, using intuition (and a few
resources I’ll discuss below) to help guide members to new (or old) musical
territory. Some members are less interested in being challenged than others, and
that’s more than okay.
Blowing their minds
More members than not dare us to blow their minds. But what does
that mean? Since we don’t want to scare anyone away, it’s crucial to consider
each member’s listening experience. We probably won’t send Wolf Eyes to a member
whose favorite bands are Maroon 5 and Adele, even if they’ve dared us to blow
their mind. Instead, we might start with something relatively safe, like Broken
Bells or Neko Case, then after a few months send something slightly outside
their comfort zone. We want to demonstrate that we understand their interests
before we throw John Coltrane’s Ascension at them. Every CD we
recommend is an opportunity to further our relationship with that person. And
then blow their mind.
Do it yourself
So you want to start a CD of the Month Club at your library, but
you aren’t feeling confident about choosing music for strangers. Don’t worry: if
you enjoy music, then you have what it takes. There’s a wealth of advice in back
issues of this column. Start with Moyer’s “Music Advisory” (ow.ly/ulz0K) and
Brian Morell’s “Discovery Without Algorithms” (ow.ly/ulz6L). I’ve also developed
a program-in-a-box (ow.ly/uk996) that any library is welcome to use.
Gnoosic’s Music Map (music-map.com) plots similar artists in
spatial proximity. Sometimes the comparisons are a bit off, but it’s usually a
great starting point. AllMusic (allmusic.com) is also excellent; in addition to
suggesting comparable artists it includes categories for “influenced by,”
“followed by,” “associated with,” and “collaborated with.” AllMusic also
features terrific guides to genres, highlighting key artists, albums, and songs
in each, plus tons of reviews and biographical information.
What we get from it
So many great, unexpected things have happened as a result of
this program. Members visit the library just to talk about music, or they’ll
email to tell me they just placed a hold on every other CD by the artist or
composer we recommended. Sometimes they’ll even counter with their own
recommendations for me! The CD of the Month Club allows us to shine a spotlight
on less-trafficked corners of our amazing music collection. I’m excited beyond
words about how far this project has come in such a short time. Suffice it to
say, my mind is blown.
Steve Kemple is a Music Reference Librarian at the Public
Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County
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