Pandora: Add Experience to the Mix

As a long-time follower of Pandora Radio, I’ve watched them start-up, almost fail and then keep on keeping on. I’ve shared a few articles about them in the past (Here).

In 2004, I was a paying member of this Internet music service. A paying member gets “special” treatment and that means – no advertisements in my way on the web page, just straight music. When I met president and founder, Tim Westergren, in 2007 he asked me, “Why are you paying? You are probably the only one who does!” I guess I didn’t care since I felt like I was supporting internet radio and what they were trying to achieve; a community of like minded people who can connect and share the music they love amongst each other.

Every three months the Gods’ of Pandora would take $12 out of my account automatically. I didn’t notice it much until my credit card expired and all of a sudden advertisements started showing up all over my experience. At that point, I became intrigued. Pandora was targeting me as a savvy consumer.

Now it looks like they are taking ad’s one step further and creating experiences around them. In an article found on “The Future of Ads”, they go about explaining Pandora’s innovating advertising by way of banner experiences. Not only will they show me an ad, they will create some personalization around that ad to get me to notice and interact with it. Since they already know me (i.e. my musical style and my demographics) they are able to widget into my Pandora station interface and get me thinking…

Ah…My favorite Christmas station reminds me of chestnuts and open fires, friends and family. Oh wait; I need a new shovel and salt for the driveway to get them in, this is Minneapolis!

-Jodi

Pandora: Add Experience to the Mix

Spotify, A Blessing in Internet Music Streaming

I was reading on cnet news about a new music streaming source called Spotify. This full-service tool allows users to search and stream as their hearts desire instead of a typical music streaming service that works similar to radio broadcasts; once the song is over it’s gone until the next time around. Not only does Spotify let us listen to the same song over and over until we throw up (which I am shamelessly guilty of), but it can find playlists off of Last.fm and allow the users to share them. This is very cool.

This service has gained support from the major labels. It seems that they are learning from the mistakes they made with Napster by embracing complimentary music and playing “nice”. It’s good to know that they are opening their blind eyes to the fact we are educated music lovers that will support what is good and it’s not about being free. This is about control; our control. One of the creators is Ludvig Strigeus, who created the popular uTorrent. Strigeus has proven that he understands the resources needed to operate a successful P2P environment. NIN has publically released their music in torrent form as a symbol of being tuned into what the public is doing to get their valued music.

Have I sold you on this new music service that treats the consumer well and is getting amazing reviews from the important players? Now, everyone that lives in the UK, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Spain and France, go get it! As for me, who lives in the free democracy of the USA; it looks like I still don’t have control when it comes to my music. ☹

-Jodi

Spotify, A Blessing in Internet Music Streaming

Will Pandora Sacrifice Itself for Us?

Recently Pandora Radio announced that it is about to close the book on its Music Genome Project (See Article)


They have been struggling since March of 2007 with license fee increases imposed by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) and backed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) that are between 300% and 1200%.

Started in 1999 and quietly launched in 2005, Pandora was a founding block to the next generation of music, personalization. The Internet radio station analyzes my own tastes through what is called a Genome Project of technical attributes and introduces me to other artists that fit my profile by using a DNA fingerprint of mystery musical processes.

I joined the service in 2006 after reading about an innovative digital music server called “Squeezebox”. The “Squeezebox” brought music from my computer right to my living room speakers. It came with a free trial subscription to Pandora Radio and that trial had me ditching my ten dollar a month satellite radio service in two minutes or less! Internet Radio is amazing, free and allows me to find music I would never be exposed to under traditional radio sources. Since then, they have adopted many different platforms to stream music on.

Since 2006, I have spent a small fortune on independent band’s music I wouldn’t have had the pleasure to grace my ears upon. The service gave me access to Amazon.com as well as iTunes to grab my newly found artists.

In May of 2007, unable to afford the necessary licenses, they were forced to block the folks outside of the USA which limited their growth as a company.


I had the pleasure of meeting founder, Tim Westergren in July of 2007 at the Cedar Cultural Center, as he was traveling the country to engage the audience and grow support for their legislation effort appropriately called, “SaveNetRadio”. Hearing Tim speak, finding out he grew up in Minneapolis and putting White Light Riot’s EP, “The Dark is Light Enough” into his hands was a priceless experience.

Looking through the lens, it seems that sacrifices may need to be made at the cost of Pandora and the demise of one company will lead the way for others to grow from. It seems his cutting edge process has been adopted by services such as Last.FM, Slacker, Imeem, and The Sixtyone. Some of these services are better, some worse and some just different.

Tim will go down in my book as a pioneer and a truly modern spirit. His entrepreneurial story was told in October, 2007’s www.Inc.com’s article titled, “Pandora's Long Strange Trip”.

The destination may be the end of a musical service that has made 1 million people’s daily life more enjoyable, but the legacy must live on!

Will Pandora Sacrifice Itself for Us?