The information from the podcast was very instrumental in the decisions I made in choosing ten of the 27 songs on the Golden Records Curation. I was not familiar with most of the pieces, so the background information provided about the origin and meanings of the songs/instrumentals discussed by the presenter, really helped. My criteria then included:
sounds that evoke one emotion or another in anyone or any creature listening, example, happiness or sadness
rich diversity of Earth: inclusion of diverse sounds from different instruments, animals and people
representations from different continents and/or cultures
sounds of varying ranges and/or beats that could be heard by aliens/creatures if they are more inclined to hear one type of sound/frequency over another