Pandora’s large database of music and customizable personal stations makes
it a site that any music lover will find useful and engaging – and it’s free!
Pandora.com
Pandora Internet Radio is a digital radio station that allows users to create multiple, personally customized stations that plays only the music that relates to the individual’s own taste, selections and preferences. Users have the option of setting up a free account or purchasing an account (with additional features) for $36 per year. Registering is as simple as entering your email address and selecting a password (and NO, you don’t get any annoying emails!) and creating a station is as simple as selecting a song or artist. Other features of the site include setting up a personal profile, sharing music stations with friends, customizing your stations, meeting people with similar tastes, purchasing the songs that come up in your queue, as well as learning more about the musicians and music that you are listening to. Go to Pandora
The Music Genome Project: History & About
The Music Genome Project (MGP) is the fuel that makes the Pandora system run so smoothly, allowing for the efficient and effective personalized musical experience. Born in the year 2000, the MGP is a comprehensive database of artists, songs and albums ranging from the ‘top artist’ of this past week to the Classical and Renaissance composers dating back to the 15th century. Since starting the MGP, Pandora’s 50 staff analysts, comprised primarily of music-loving individuals with 4-year degrees in music theory, composition or performance, have listened to hundreds of thousands of songs to prescribe certain musical attributes (over 400 in the database) to each song. These attributes pertain to the musical identity of the song and highlight specific features that help define it – harmonies, instrumentation, rhythm, vocals, influence, style, genre, etc.
When a user creates a station (more on this to come), let’s say with a ‘seed’ of Burning Spear, the MGP will then play only music on that station that the analysts have determined share similar attributes that are prevalent in Burning Spear’s music. For example, the Bob Marley song Sun is Shining might come up because it “features a reggae feel, heavy melodic ornamentation, a busy horn section, extensive vamping and mixed acoustic and electric ornamentation” – all attributes that are common amongst Burning Spear songs. More About MGP
Creating & Customizing Stations
Creating a station is extremely easy, but exacting your individual customization can take a little bit of trial and error experimentation. Building a station is as easy as selecting a song or artist as the ‘seed’ for your station after clicking the “Create New Station” button (located top left of your main action menu, see below Figure 1) – this triggers the MGP to start finding songs and artists that share similar attributes to your seed selection (as discussed above in the Burning Spear – Bob Marley example). Pandora allows you to build up to 100 stations, which is more than enough, and offers a few different ways to help customize each of them. Let’s take a look at a few of them below in the screenshot of your main action menu. Currently I’m listening to “Burning Spear Radio” as indicated by it being highlighted in orange (Figure 1 left side, Figure 2 condensed view). Here are a few things to pay attention to (see Table 1 below):
Figure 1: ‘Main Action Menu’ Figure 2 Figure 3
Table 1
| Action | Location | Function | Suggestion |
| Add Variety | Figure 2, beneath station name on left | Add new ‘seeds’ to current station to add variety to station | Don’t overdue it! Add wisely and concisely using ‘seeds’ of a similar genre |
| Options Button | Figure 2, beneath station name on left | Allows you to edit station (delete ‘variety seeds’), rename station, share station or delete the station | Use the edit station function to trim away seeds that you don’t feel fit the station anymore. Use the share station function to give a station to others or find others who have similar tastes. |
| QuickMix | Figure 2, beneath station listings | Allows you select several of your stations and mix them without altering individual station | I suggest using this feature to add variety to your listening experience. Focus on developing each station individually by using the ‘add variety’ tool, then get good variety on the whole by creating a Quickmix of two or more stations. |
| Thumbs Down | Figure 3, beneath artist image on left | Tells MGP not to play this song or related songs in this station | Again, be very selective. Don’t simply say you don’t like a song just because you don’t want to hear it – once you give it a thumbs down, your station will alter itself permanently. |
| Thumbs Up | Figure 3, beneath artist image on left | Tells MGP to play this song and similar songs more often in this station | Reserve the use of this function for songs that you feel define the ‘feel’ that you think this station represents. The MGP will play this song more often and more related songs as well. |
| ‘Menu’ Options | Figure 3, beneath artist image in center | Three station-altering functions: (1) “I don’t like this song” (2) “Why was this song selected?” (3) “Move song to another station | (1) Tells MGP not to play this song on this station for one month (2) Very helpful in learning how to build a station: tells you what musical attributes of this song made the MGP play it in this station. Study this to learn how MGP works. (3) Allows you to move this song to one of your stations that you feel it fits better with. |
Pandora Community
Pandora allows you to create a personal profile, share stations with other users, find other users with similar music tastes or search for users based on artist or song selections, and participate in a constantly updating blog. This is a valuable feature to the site if you plan on spending a lot of time on here and are curious about new music or the musical preferences of one your friends. I have found that the majority of people tend to ‘stretch out’ their stations too much by adding too many ‘variety seeds’ that don’t match up with the current seed structure of a given station. It can be fun however to learn what other people are listening to, and to find people who might share a similar taste in music. In my opinion, this feature is reserved for those seeking to truly find new music.
Pandora vs. XM/Serius Radio
Although Serius/XM Radio can be a great way for fans to find particular stations that meet their own individual tastes, Pandora Internet Radio is the next and more refined version of that. Serius Radio boasts over 69 music channels on their website, ranging from country, reggae and jazz, to jamband, classical and rock. With Pandora however, you have the ability to focus in on one certain part of a genre (rather than having to listen to a lot of music that you may not be interested in. For example, Burning Spear and Bob Marley would be under the reggae subgenre, “roots reggae,” a very different side of reggae than “ska,” “island” or “dub-step,” all of which would be incorporated into Serius’ one, all encompassing reggae channel – Pandora is the personally filtered version of Serius Radio.
The Downsides
Pandora offers a lot to its users, but there are certain limitations to the site that might disappoint a few of you out there. First of all, due to their licensing agreement, Pandora doesn’t allow you to select a specific song to hear at a given time – it will play only songs that are related to your station seed. Second, although only one ad pops up every seven songs or when you change stations and only lasts 15 seconds, some people might be annoyed. Sign-up for the $36 a year account if you love Pandora but just can’t handle the ads. Third, you can only skip six songs a day, again due to licensing agreements, but you can always switch stations if you don’t want to use one of your skips up. Also, as discussed above, it can be difficult to build a ‘successful station,’ but in my opinion that’s one of the more fun parts of the site – learning how it works by learning more about the music.
References:
Pandora Internet Radio. Pandora Media, Inc. 2005-2009. Website. 6 Oct 2009 – 15 Oct 2009. www.pandora.com
Serius Satellite Radio: The Best Radio On Earth. SERIUS. Website. 8 Oct 2009. http://www.sirius.com/
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