Dr. Nolan Gasser: AI, Authorship, and the Future of Art

Nolan Gasser is a composer, pianist, author, and musicologist — most notably, the architect of Pandora Radio’s Music Genome Project. He is the author of the best-selling book WHY YOU LIKE IT: The Science Music & Culture of Musical Taste (Macmillan Publishers,) that has been called “a work of staggering erudition and breadth” by The Economist and forms the basis of Nolan’s PBS Special, WHY YOU LIKE IT: Decoding Musical Taste. The PBS show presents a 1-hour special format combining Gasser’s insights on the science of musical taste in conjunction with a live concert, animations, and a pioneering interactive app.

Gasser’s original compositions include a vast number of works including the opera Secret Garden (SF Opera) and the orchestral works Cosmic Reflection (Baltimore Symphony), to name a few. Gasser also has an all-star world-fusion band, The Mighty Mighty.

In the world of tech, beyond his groundbreaking work at Pandora, Gasser is the co-founder of Katch Data, a leading “genomic” data company that works with major media players such as Meta, Paramount, and Comcast. The company combines human & artificial intelligence to understand, quantify, and predict individual taste across preference-driven products. This is the revolution of “genomic” analytics. Their data is used in Recommendation + Search, Marketing + Media Planning and Ad Activation, among other applications. Katch Data has successfully launched its initial product categories (Film, TV, Social Media) and is now expanding its offerings to other formats (music, gaming, fashion, food, ads, etc.) — with plans to cover all major consumer lifestyle categories and build out a “Taste Passport” for consumers.

Dr. Gasser is currently involved in several Music AI projects, including as an expert music consultant for Google DeepMind on their cutting-edge AI initiatives.