In partnership with IBM, electronic musician James Murphy is turning data from the U.S. Open into music through an app called "U.S. Open Sessions."
The app allows people to tune in to U.S. Open matches in real time and listen to the music being created from points, faults, aces, and so on.
"For every match that is played, users can listen to music generated from the match in real time," said Ann Rubin, VP of branded content at IBM. "It allows you to engage with our brand in a unique way. Analytics and cloud technology are hard things to explain, so it's good for us to show these technologies in action, in ways people can understand."
Essentially, IBM takes the strengths and weaknesses of each player in the match, turns that data into numbers, and generates a sound based on those numbers. It also is working with its agency partner Ogilvy & Mather New York, and digital production company Tool.
"Algorithms are built to take tennis data from a specific match and look at an ace and perhaps generate a particular sound based on that, double fault different sound, and then it's how it's composed together," said John Kent, a spokesperson from IBM. "The idea is, a match is tighter it'll have a little bit more of a dramatic kind of feel to it, so there's an attempt within the algorithms to get a sense of the momentum of the match."
A new track will be created and produced for most of the men's and women's singles matches, and Murphy will reportedly incorporate factors such as wind and humidity to give each song its own unique sound. Murphy will then remix and arrange the tracks into 14 composed songs, which will then be released as an album. Singer-songwriter and producer Murphy fronted the dance band LCD Soundsytem, which disbanded in 2011.
Fans are able to access the music through IBM's mobile website, where they can stream the music being created in real time, listen to past tracks and watch videos about how the music is being created. The site will also include a visualizer for the music, allowing users to see the music being created.
Users simply need to click on either "men's matches" or "women's matches" and find the soundtrack that they want to listen to.
IBM is promoting the app through various websites, and hopes that it will generate interest in IBM's Big Data.
