Web Reviews

Pandora's Box is Full of Great Music (Just For You)

Indianapolis, IN - May 1, 2008

“It began when a group of musicians and "music-loving technologists" set out with the idea to capture the essence of music at its most fundamental level and create the most comprehensive analysis of music ever”

–The Music Genome Project

If you're a parent of a pre-teen, you'll both understand and appreciate the following sentiment: I'm really sick of Radio Disney. You have to hand it to them… they certainly know how to court their primary audience (and sell the parents' demographic to advertisers.) And, truly, their programming isn't that bad. But I might be just one more Jonas Brothers' or Cheetah Girls' songs away from becoming just one more sad headline: "Man buries own head in Moon Sand; neighbors puzzled."

This is why I normally listen to talk radio. It's like a reprieve from repetitive lyrics ("say what you need to say; just say what you need to say…") But there are times when I can't take any more of the right (Boortz, Beck, etc.) the left (NPR) or the egos (you know who you are, Abdul.) That's when I found Pandora and now that I've opened the box, I just can't see going back. First, a little background.

Way back in January 2000, a group of musicians and "music-loving technologists" set out with the idea to capture the essence of music at its most fundamental level and create the most comprehensive analysis of music ever. This became known as the Music Genome Project, and the technique involved listening and cataloguing an extraordinary number of attributes about each and every song they encountered. Each song in the Music Genome Project is analyzed using up to 400 distinct musical characteristics by a trained musical analyst. These musical "genes" encompass rhythm, harmony, instrumentation, vocals… essentially, like the human genes that served as the inspiration, everything that makes a song a song. The result turned into a kind of roadmap of attributes that could be used to describe any type or iteration of music.

With this roadmap, they found that they could use this information to help determine exactly what it is about certain music that appeals to certain people. For instance, if they know you like "Cats in the Cradle" and "Comfortably Numb", they could look for like attributes of each to narrow down exactly what you find amenable to each. And the more they listened, and the more they were able to fine-tune the results, they better they became at predictive modeling. And Pandora was born, with the lofty goal to play music you'll love, and nothing else.

Pandora is a radio station that you can program. You simply give it a little information to start with ("I like Billy Joel") and Pandora will create a continuous, commercial-free playlist made of songs with attributes similar to Billy Joel's music. As it plays, it allows you to fine tune the results by instantly offering simple thumbs up or down ratings for each song. (In fact, if you give a song an unfavorable rating it instantly stops playing and moves to the next song in the queue. Try that with Radio Disney.) Interested in why a particular song was chosen to play and you'll get a response something like "we're playing this track because it features a subtle use of vocal harmony, a twelve-eight time signature, a vocal-centric aesthetic and string section beds." It's a little creepy, them knowing better than I what type of music I like…

The site offers some other necessary functionality. You can buy music instantly from iTunes or Amazon, or just get more information about an artist, the "genre" of the station that's been created for you, or fine-tuning controls to help improve the predictive nature. It's such a great way to find new artists and music that you're likely to like, that you'll often find yourself checking in just to see who and what you're listening to. Just so you don't feel tethered to your computer, Pandora Mobile is available on the go through a partnership with both AT&T and Sprint, and you can get it piped into your home with either Logitech or Sonos technology.

The problem, in my opinion, is this: if I can create a continuous playlist of new music that I'm probably going to like, why would I buy the music? I'm led to one conclusion: eventually this won't be free and they'll need to move to a subscription model to make it work. But for now it is free, and it is unbelievably great.

This is one Pandora's box you'll find yourself opening again and again.