Difference between revisions of "Pandora"

Revision as of 22:22, 2 November 2012

Pandora Radio is a free personalized radio in which users can listen to music with similar musical attributes (rhythm syncopation, key tonality, vocal harmonies, etc). Pandora's mission is to "play music that the user loves".^[1] The site started in 2000 and music analysts have continued to develop methods of playing songs that have similar qualities.

Pandora has caught in the public domain and currently has more than one million users. It has also become one of the best applications for streaming music on the iPhone.^[2]

Pandora official logo.

How Pandora Works

The user is able to input a song or artist of their choice, which Pandora uses to create a station that plays similar music. Users can to create different stations for varied musical interests. By utilizing "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" buttons, Pandora is able to better tailor the music it plays to meet your interests. As Pandora learns more about what you like and dislike, it updates your station accordingly - for example, thumbing down two songs by an artist will ban that artist from your station (preventing other songs from the artist from playing on the station in the future).^[3]

Pandora also allows users to add artists or add songs to existing stations in order to give stations more diversity in music.

Mobile App

Pandora has an application for Blackberry, Android, an iOS platforms. It was recently updated in the end of October 2012. Officially called Pandora 4.0, the updated app finally brings features that have been available with the web version of Pandora to mobile phones. Currently one of the most downloaded apps in the United States, 1 in every 3 smartphone owners have accessed Pandora on their smartphone, and the app is the second most-downloaded free iPhone app of all time, according to Apple. A more personalized experience, the app gives each Pandora listener his or her own profile page. Much like a Facebook profile shows what you’ve done on the social network, your Pandora profile will show what stations you’ve created, tracks you’ve bookmarked, and tracks you’ve given a thumbs up or down to. Also, an activity feed works somewhat in the same way as your Facebook News Feed, and allows you to follow friends on the service as well as see what tunes Pandora listeners with similar interests are listening to. The Pandora app also gives Artists also have their own Artist pages in the updated app with biography and discography information. If you’re particularly fond of an artist, the Artist page also shows similar artists, so you can potentially discover someone new while browsing. Recently, Microsoft also announced that Pandora would be coming to Windows Phone 8 in 2013. When the app launches, they have said that it will give Windows Phone users ad-free radio for 1 year.^[4]

Music Genome Project

The Music Genome Project is an essential part of how Pandora became the successful application that it is. The Music Genome Project is said to be "the most sophisticated taxonomy of musical information ever collected"; it has taken millions of songs and sorted them into different radio stations based on similarity.^[5]

In order to categorize songs, an analyst examines one each song based on 450 musical characteristics. Analysts for the Music Genome Project aren't just ordinary musicians; they are required to have certain training and certain understandings about how to identify the characteristics of a song. The Music Genome Project's database uses "precisely defined terminology, a consistent frame of reference, redundant analysis, and ongoing quality control".^[6] Pandora puts a great deal of time and energy into being as thorough as possible with each individual song.

Due to its thoroughness and accurateness, the Music Genome Project has been essential to Pandora's success.

Tranditional vs. Web Radio Services

Traditional radio plays the same songs for all users listening at any given time, which means it lacks the uniqueness and individuality that Pandora offers. However, traditional radio stations do not have to pay a fee each time they play a song.^[7]

Pandora, on the other hand, allows for individuality and creativity by allowing users to have greater control over what songs they hear. While there may be many people using Pandora at once, each one may be listening to a different song. Pandora simultaneously streams separate songs for multiple individual users at once, something that traditional radios do not have the capacity to do. Also, Pandora has a much greater variety in genres, artists, and types of music than traditional radio play. It has specialized playlists for certain artists, as well as playlists catered towards specific genres, locations, etc. For example, Wiz Khalifa Radio, and East Coast Hip-Hop Radio.

Pulling the Plug?

Streaming music online has become an increasing problem. Web Radios were recently hit with major fees, which require that Pandora pay for each individual song they play. Over the past four years, The Copyright Royalty Board has increased the cost of each song that Web Radios play from 8/100 of a cent per song per listener to 19/100 of a cent per song.^[8] With 40,000 new customers a day plus a base of over one million who already use the site, this adds up. In 2010, Pandora estimated their cost for playing music to be over $17 million, which is significantly more than the company generates in revenue from ads.^[9] Because of the increasing cost to stream songs online, Tim Westergren, the founder of Pandora, recently announced that they may have to pull the plug on Pandora.

1. ↑ http://www.pandora.com/about
2. ↑ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/15/AR2008081503367.html
3. ↑ http://www.ehow.com/how_2031306_ban-artist-one.html
4. ↑ http://mashable.com/2012/10/29/pandora-app-update/
5. ↑ http://www.pandora.com/about/mgp
6. ↑ http://www.pandora.com/about/mgp
7. ↑ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/15/AR2008081503367.html
8. ↑ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/15/AR2008081503367.html
9. ↑ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/15/AR2008081503367.html