In the late nineties, there were a suite of comapanies focused upon music/media recommendation (Agent Arts, Kick, etc).  I consulted for a few of them and worked full time for one of them.  These companies used everything from music collections, stated preferences, to actual listening behavior as a means to connect you with people like yourself, suggest new music, and even personalize web portals and media applications.  Ahhh… the good ole days.  Most everyone tanked, given the music industry’s desire to sit on its ass and whine all day long.

Five years go by and lo and behold a crop of new companies take form.  (MOG, iLike, Pandora, etc).  These companies use everything from music collections, stated preferences, to actual listening behavior as a means to connect you with people like yourself, suggest new music, and even personalize web portals and media applications.  Sound familiar?  It should.  And, they are getting funding along the lines of those companies a half decade earlier.

I hope these new folks succeed.  I hope the music, film and TV industries continue to experiment.  But its amazing that the same business ideas (and models) can appear in two different decades.  We’ll see if fate plays a different card this time around.