the open formula

the cause: leave the algorithm behind — completely, eventually

TANE's stated goal is to leave algorithmic mediation behind entirely. We are not there yet, and we won't pretend we are. Today the candidate songs still come from Audius's public search — a ranking algorithm we don't control — and we tell you exactly where that happens (see 'how the one is picked'). What is already algorithm-free is TANE's own selection: deterministic, readable, no engagement optimization, no personalization, no A/B. The path from here is an openly-assembled, human- and community-curated pool, so that eventually no ranking algorithm touches what blooms. We'd rather show you the honest gap than claim a purity we haven't earned.

it is deterministic

The same day plus the same soil always grows the same bloom. No hidden state, no per-user manipulation, no A/B black box. Today's bloom is fixed by the date — which is why the song you share matches the song your friend sees.

every bloom has a provenance

Each bloom carries a fingerprint derived deterministically from its song (no.XXXXXX). It is not scarce — anyone with the same song reproduces the exact same bloom, and the code is public. That is the point: the signature is verifiable and readable, not a claim of ownership. (True scarcity lives only in a physical edition — a numbered cassette or print.) So 'not just made by a computer' means made by a rule you can check, from your song, not a black box.

your soil chooses, and you can see it

Your soil is the set of tastes you picked or grew by watering. The day's seed (derived from the date) plus your soil decide the genre. Your soil is shown to you and editable — nothing about your taste is inferred behind your back. An empty soil stays empty; we never fake a preference.

the crowd defines the genres

No classifier decides what a song is. Genre comes from the tags listeners already put on the music — a shared, extendable vocabulary, not a model's guess.

only what can actually play

A song is eligible only if it is streamable, not gated behind a purchase or token, not deleted, has a title and artwork, and runs between one and ten minutes. Nothing is shown that you can't actually hear.

how the one is picked

Candidates come from Audius's public search for the chosen genre — we don't control which tracks Audius returns (that ranking is theirs, not ours). From that set we prefer tag-matched songs and pick deterministically by the day's seed, sorted so the pick is order-independent — today's single bloom is reproducible. 'Next' uses variety and skips what you've seen. If a genre is too sparse, we widen to related genres, then fall back to Audius's trending — a popularity ranking, labeled, not hidden. No engagement optimization, no personalization, no A/B.

watering never touches the ranking

Watering a bloom grows the flower in front of you and is private appreciation for the artist. It feeds no algorithm, changes no one's selection, and there is no leaderboard or count.

auditable, on purpose

The rules above are the whole engine — there is nothing else. The aim is to keep them public and, over time, publish an audit so any choice can be traced to its source. Transparency is the point, not a feature.

Not just an explanation — read the actual code.