Surfacing displays of cultural affinity between like objects (similar music, books, movies) as well networks of complementary objects (cars-electronics-movies-clothes) are important to user-generated databases (last.fm, amazon, yelp) that add value by helping users DISCOVER new, relevant information. They are also important to advertising and marketing networks looking to bring new offers to the attention of these users.

This concept visualization developed for Topspin Media, focuses on a way to show the cultural affinity, or relative cultural similarity, between bands on the last.fm system. Sphere size shows the traffic volume for a given page, distance between spheres shows their relative affinity to one another.