In the digital age, getting perfect Music recommendations has become easier than ever. Gone are the days when you had to strain yourself to flip on the radio or take the time to meet with a few friends to discuss new artists.

Instead, the process today is as easy as the following: sign up for an account with Pandora and take a few days voting songs up or down to sufficiently engage its algorithm; pull together a few dozen carefully-chosen music blogs into your RSS reader; and learn how to use Music Recommendation Services including Last.FM, MyStrands, iLike and Musicovery, which function as either websites, desktop applications or add-ons to iTunes or Windows Media Player.

You’ll be on top of every artist in your favorite genre in no time!

But although this process couldn’t be any more crystal clear, it seems that people are demanding even more effective tools for finding new music.

A recent study by Orpheus Media Research, a music research and development company, found that people question the accuracy of these music services. 40 percent of participants reported that the recommendations were accurate less than half the time and 22 percent went so far as to say that it was difficult or even impossible to find new music that they liked.

How could the recommendation engines fail to take into account such vital criteria as the mood and level of intoxication of the listeners when they first heard a song? Or their opinion on the political views of the artist?

About half of participants in the survey advocated a single website for all their music needs where they could match their current favorite artists and songs to new ones. With hundreds of entrepreneurs, major music vendors and record labels battling over billion dollar markets, we’ll expect this centralized resource to be rolled out very soon.

Finally, the study confirmed popular opinion that 0 percent of music fans have ever found new music illegally through peer-to-peer file sharing networks, because the prospect of breaking copyright law is enough to make any web surfer tremble with fear.

Music recommendation services, looking real ticklish!

Photo by mrceviz