My brain recognizes quality to be a much greater criterion than similarity (and even the similarity on those is stretching it, but I get those suggestions all the time).

For me the dream isn't to have it exactly match my tastes. It's to have it suggest stuff that I might possibly like.

Okay, let's say for instance, I know I like Sheryl Crow (we'll just agree to disagree on that one ), I know that I only can barely tolerate Alanis Morisette, but I've never heard anything by Liz Phair, and perhaps I've never even heard the name (I actually have heard the name but let's just say I hadn't). I would still want it to suggest Liz Phair to me and offer to send me a sample MP3 and a link to where I can buy the album if I liked what I heard.

Whether or not I ended up liking Liz Phair is less relevant than having it say "maybe you'll like Liz Phair, try her out". At least that's better than having the record industry trying to cram Britney Spears or N'sync down my throat.

Imagine having artists suggested to you based on stylistic similarity, as opposed to having your music choices decided by how much cocaine was distributed to the radio DJ's by that particular record label.

The end result is that even the most obscure artists will get that chance to connect with fans who like their style of music. Artists who wouldn't otherwise have been able to make money would suddenly have actual FANS who happened to share their tastes.