Alexander Nilsson founded Albums Generator as a music discovery tool. The internet was supposed to end the monoculture — but instead it only consolidated taste, algorithms creating the illusion of choice while boosting safe sounds and big names. Enter Alexander Nilsson, a year-old web developer from Sweden.
Each day, each user is randomly assigned an album to listen to, and given a chance to review and rate it; the next day, they do it all over again. The site actually includes 1, albums, as it compiles versions of the list that have appeared in different editions of the book, which was first published in and was most recently updated in While it's by no means a perfect list with the creators' UK bias occasionally emerging — I'm sorry, but Klaxons?!
Several Exclaim! Sign up for the Albums Generator here. It started during the pandemic. I'm working at an office where we've always had music on in the background, opening up for some great discussions throughout the day. In an attempt to keep up with that while working from home during the lockdown, I started developing a basic site that would randomize an album for us to listen to each day. I've had the book Albums lying around at home for at least 15 years but had barely opened it.
So I thought I might as well let that book be the source for the albums. It was clearly the only way I'd ever get around to listening to those albums. Your website doesn't ask for any personal information, but do you have a sense of who is using the site? The downside of having zero cookies: I know nothing about my users!
But I can make a few educated guesses based on the data I do have. The site has been growing in an organic kind of way, leading to a pretty mixed type of users. Also, it's such a hardcore challenge to keep up with, so I'd guess anyone who's over albums deep is probably already pretty passionate about music.
