Finding out what would be my first post on this blog did not take me too long. Pandora.com was actually on of the sites I had in mind when deciding to open this blog. I have been a fan of this web radio for three years now, using it almost on a daily basis.
The idea behind this web radio is smart enough in itself: you enter the name of a group or song that you like, and Pandora offers you to listen to other bands or songs from the same artist that it has identified as close artistically. To help refine it suggestions, Pandora also offers you to say if you like or not the song it suggests you.
What separates Pandora from other similar web radios (apart from its really neat, user-friendly, and aesthetic design) is that I have rarely been disappointed by what it suggests me. I'm actually most of the time really amazed by the selections created, listening sometimes for more than an hour without really disliking any of the song I listen to. And I think I am quiet picky when it comes to music. More than this, Pandora has helped me discovering quiet a few excellent bands.
The selections and associations are really smart and, amazingly, all decided by the Pandora guys themseleves, not some shitty algorythm! The result of their work was called "The Music Genome". Here is how they describe it:
"Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or "genes" into a very large Music Genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It's not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records - it's about what each individual song sounds like.
Since we started back in 2000, we've carefully listened to the songs of tens of thousands of different artists - ranging from popular to obscure - and analyzed the musical qualities of each song one attribute at a time. This work continues each and every day as we endeavor to include all the great new stuff coming out of studios, clubs and garages around the world."
Since we started back in 2000, we've carefully listened to the songs of tens of thousands of different artists - ranging from popular to obscure - and analyzed the musical qualities of each song one attribute at a time. This work continues each and every day as we endeavor to include all the great new stuff coming out of studios, clubs and garages around the world."
The site also offers some really smart and well-informed band descriptions:
Another great thing about Pandora is tha tit is legal and that the site actually pay the artists you listen to. Which means you not only get to listen to music and artists you like but that you also get a chance to suppport financially these artists. I love the concept.
The only bummer here is that Pandora (and that is actually not a small one) is that, for legal reasons, it is theoratically only available to US citizens. Not sure if sorting out this legal issue is part of Pandora's guys agenda (especially as it originally used to be available worlwide). I hope it is!
