Opening Pandora’s Music Box

It seems I am on my computer way too much; such is life for a high tech entrepreneur, the modern day office worker, or just a plain old geek. I login first thing in the morning and logout the last thing at night. I use my computer for work, personal communications, finances, and entertainment. The family television set has been put in the closet and we don’t have a stereo system hooked up in the house. My computer and my wife’s laptop have replaced television and radio. The 22” Wide Screen monitor I treated myself to - much to my wife’s displeasure - is now one of the smartest purchases I have made lately but I “really should have gotten the bigger one”.

My family relies on NetFlix, Comedy Central, and a variety of video content sites for our audio/visual experience. For music I have a dedicated hard drive with ripped CD’s and purchased downloaded music. I can queue up quite a bit of music – but I am limited to the music I own. When I am focused on work I want music to suit my mood without having to think about it. Rather than sorting through my collection and making a play list, I want to have mood or setting based selection of music like radio but with a focus on my musical tastes and preferences and without commercial and DJ interruptions.

Of all the online music listening options available the one I use the most; the one I have set as a “home page tab” in IE7; the one that keeps me from closing my web browser is online music broadcaster Pandora® (http://www.pandora.com/). The folks at Pandora® and The Music Genome Project® have put together a rich music portal that blends radio and social networking with an emphasis on delivering songs I want (and many I didn’t know I wanted) to my desktop. No commercials – no interruptions. Like radio I can select Stations to listen to based on tastes. As with the social networks I can share my Stations with other listeners and look for people with similar tastes in music.

I can’t describe what Pandora is any better than the people at Pandora, so here is the FAQ from their site:

Q: What is Pandora?

Pandora is a music discovery service designed to help you enjoy music you already know, and to help you discover new music you'll love.
It's powered by the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken, the Music Genome Project: a crazy project started back in early 2000 to capture the complex musical DNA of songs using a large team of highly-trained musicians.
Just tell us one of your favorite songs or artists and we'll launch a streaming station to explore that part of the musical universe.”

“complex musical DNA” is an accurate description in trying define tastes in music. There is a great deal of information that we process to define our likes and dislikes for most anything in life. Music has many facets as do moods. For Pandora to have the intelligence to cross reference a massive database of music, tastes, and preferences and find songs that I will probably like is pretty cool. After experiencing the day-in-day-out use of the site I swear it alters mood based on the time of day. Melodic and instrumental in the morning and a little more up tempo in the afternoon. It also pushes my musical boundaries by testing the waters with different artists. I can tell Pandora what I like, what I don’t like, and it will respond accordingly.

What’s really cool about the service is I have found many artists I would not have found otherwise. I am learning about musicians and bands from years ago that I never came across as well as new artists breaking onto the music scene. With a click I can read a bio of the artist, see a catalog of their work, and hear samples of their music. If I like what I hear there are convenient links to Amazon and iTunes. I have purchased more music this year than in the last two years combined and my Amazon Wish List keeps growing. Pandora is the ultimate online music station and store.

When I first came upon Pandora in February of this year I was hooked instantly. By searching for a favorite Artist or Song I want to hear I have started my first Station. For the ease of use and the great user experience I was willing to pay up to $10 per month for the service. Upon reading the FAQ’s I found out it was only $36 per year without advertising and with additional benefits. My initial thought was “Why pay, I’ll never see the ads. The music will just play in the back ground.” Wrong.

Why am I wrong about not seeing the advertising? Because I am drawn back to the site by curiosity – I want to know more about the artist or I want to rate the song. I keep going back and in the process my mind is being imprinted by very well done ads whether I like it or not. I tend to block out quite a bit of marketing and advertising, but the nature of this site causes a very high imprint rate which is what the advertisers want. After six months of daily eyeball hits to the site I can recall the names of their top advertisers.

I still haven’t forked over the $36 and I’d like to think it is probably better for the company if I don’t. Pandora’s effectiveness imprinting ads in my mind should create very high demand for their web real estate while at the same time delivering a very high quality online music service. IMHO the folks at Pandora have created high standards and value for delivery of music and advertising in a Web 2.0 environment. When you open this Pandora’s Box a world of music escapes and engulfs you.

by Fred H. Dyste