Difference between revisions of "Pandora"
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Streaming music online has become an increasing, arising problem. Web radios were recently hit with major fees, and Tim Westergren, the founder of Pandora, announced that they may need to pull the plug on Pandora. Because of these fees, now their company needs to pay for each and every song they play for each user. This application attracts 40,000 new customers a day, and in addition to the one million plus users that have Pandora, that equates to a lot of songs that Pandora plays and pays for. | Streaming music online has become an increasing, arising problem. Web radios were recently hit with major fees, and Tim Westergren, the founder of Pandora, announced that they may need to pull the plug on Pandora. Because of these fees, now their company needs to pay for each and every song they play for each user. This application attracts 40,000 new customers a day, and in addition to the one million plus users that have Pandora, that equates to a lot of songs that Pandora plays and pays for. | ||
| − | The Copyright Royalty Board decided to up 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 per listener in the past four | + | The Copyright Royalty Board decided to up 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 per listener in the past four years [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/15/AR2008081503367.html [2]]. In 2010, Pandora predicted costs of song playing to be over $17 million [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/15/AR2008081503367.html [2]]. This total is significantly greater than the amount of revenue they generate from ads, hence the possibility of pulling the plug on Pandora. |
Revision as of 01:15, 13 October 2012
Contents
About
Pandora Radio is a free personalized radio in which users can listen to music of the same genre, artist, etc. The mission of Pandora is to "play music that the user loves"[1]. The site started in 2000 and music analysts have created methods of playing music that falls into the same genre.
Pandora has caught in the public domain and is a commonly used application by many. It has become one of the best applications for streaming music on the iPhone and is used by over one million users[2]
How Pandora Works
The user is able to input a song of their choice, and Pandora creates a station that plays songs that are similar. Users are able to create different stations for their different musical interests. The different radio stations allow for the user to customize a few different of their interests separately for different dynamics they may be feeling. However, what is unique about Pandora is that the user may give a thumbs up or a thumbs down to a song, and Pandora will use this to learn the user's preference and play songs that the user likes to the best of its ability.
Pandora has another feature that allows you to modify stations to add on a different artist or song giving the user room for creativity and diversity of songs.
Music Genome Project
The Music Genome Project is essential in understanding how Pandora came about and how it became the successful application that it did. It is said to be "the most sophisticated taxonomy of musical information ever collected" or in other words it has taken millions and millions of songs and has sorted them into different radio stations based on similarity[3].
The way this has worked is an analyst examines one song and chooses out of 450 musical characteristics. Songs trace back to as long as Renaissance and Classical music and up to songs that were released in the past week.
Music analysts that have been hired, aren't just any ordinary musician. Each analyst is ensured to have certain trainings, and certain understandings about how to identify the characteristics of a song to ensure the user's likeability. The Music Genome Project's database uses "precisely defined terminology, a consistent frame of reference, redunant analysis, and ongoing quality control"[3]. Pandora puts a great deal of time and energy into being as thorough as possible with each individual song.
This project has been more than essential to Pandora's success and can only help users appreciate the simplicity of turning on a station and listening to songs that they enjoy.
Tranditional vs. Web Radio Services
What exactly is the difference? Traditional radio plays one song that is played for every user. It cuts the uniqueness and individuality that Pandora offers. However, the catch is that traditional radios do not have to pay any fees to play songs.[2]
Obviously for Pandora this is not the case because Pandora allows for individuality and creativity between each user. Each user that is on at the same time can be listening to their own songs, so technically Pandora is streaming multiple songs for multiple users, something that traditional radios do not have to worry about.
Pulling the Plug?
Streaming music online has become an increasing, arising problem. Web radios were recently hit with major fees, and Tim Westergren, the founder of Pandora, announced that they may need to pull the plug on Pandora. Because of these fees, now their company needs to pay for each and every song they play for each user. This application attracts 40,000 new customers a day, and in addition to the one million plus users that have Pandora, that equates to a lot of songs that Pandora plays and pays for.
The Copyright Royalty Board decided to up 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 per listener in the past four years [2]. In 2010, Pandora predicted costs of song playing to be over $17 million [2]. This total is significantly greater than the amount of revenue they generate from ads, hence the possibility of pulling 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.pandora.com/about/mgp
