Tech

WEB APP: Boil the Frog's custom playlists link any two bands such as Deadmau5 and Napalm Death

by Mark Teo

A few months back, we told you about the Infinite Jukebox, a web app that allowed you to put your favourite song on loop for, well, ever. Now, Paul Lamere—the mind behind the Jukebox—has returned with a new, and relentlessly fun, app called Boil the Frog. 

What does it do? Quite simply, it allows you to trace the path between any two artists of your choice, by using an “artist similarity algorithm” developed by the Echo Nest. Once you’ve entered the names of two artists into the app, Boil the Frog generates custom playlist, using Rdio in Canada or Spotify down south, displaying the degrees of separation between each artist. It’s geared towards musical discovery—and you barely even notice your playlist evolving (like the proverbial frog in a pot of boiling water, natch).

For example, we created a playlist linking Deadmau5 and Napalm Death:

And here was the playlist Boil the Frog spit out—it connected the two in only 11 songs.

Easy enough, right? Try Boil the Frog right here.