Pandora (service): Difference between revisions

Pandora
	File:Pandora (music service).png Screenshot of Pandora homepage
Type of site	Internet radio
Owner	Pandora Media, Inc.
Created by	The Music Genome Project
URL	http://www.pandora.com/
Commercial	Yes
Registration	Optional

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Revision as of 21:05, 30 January 2007

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Pandora is an automated music recommendation and Internet radio service created by The Music Genome Project.

Users begin by entering a song or artist that they enjoy, and the service responds by playing selections that it thinks are musically similar. Users are then able to provide feedback on the individual song choices — approval or disapproval — which the system takes into account for future selections.

Over 400 different musical aspects are considered when selecting the next song. Examples of these are rhythm syncopation, key tonality, vocal harmonies and displayed instrumental proficiency.

The service has two subscription plans: a free subscription supported by ads, and a fee-based subscription without these ads.

The Pandora media player is based on Open Laszlo, allowing for simple cross platform portability.

MSN Radio is now powered by Pandora. The stations run off Pandora.com and use Pandora accounts rather than Windows Live IDs.

Pandora can be listened to through any Slim Devices' products.

Using and tuning

Choosing one artist results in all that artist's catalogued styles being used as a starting point, which may include those which may not be considered representative. Selecting representative tracks by the artist may give results closer to what was intended.

Each track played can be responded to in 4 ways:

Thumbs up - Play more like this
No response - No change in preference
Thumbs down - Do not play this track again, play fewer that are similar. Also skips if any skips are left
- A second negative response to the same artist will ban that artist from the selected playlist unless that artist has been manually added to the playlist or has received one or more positive votes
Zzzz - You may choose to not play a track for one month if you are tired of hearing it

Users can also bookmark songs and artists, read information about them (Backstage options) and buy music.

Limitations

The content licensing imposes a number of restrictions:

Currently only licensed for USA registration. This is enforced by requiring that the user enter a US ZIP Code at registration.
Rewind or repeat is not possible.
Only 6 skips per hour are allowed, including those resulting from a thumbs down response. However, if at least two music stations are created, switching from the current playing station to a different one and back allows skipping past the built-in limitation. This can also be achieved by leaving and then re-opening the Pandora website.
Play of a single artist is limited.
People who use the Opera internet browser for the Nintendo Wii do not have access to play Pandora.
Pocket PCs using Flash 7 for Windows Mobile, and other such devices cannot use the Pandora tuner.

Hacks

Despite concerns of violating the Music Genome's rules and breaking copyright law, a few hacks for Pandora have sprung up to enhance the functionality and ease of use already present. For example:

Wrappers for the Pandora Tuner
- These applications isolate the Pandora tuner into its own separate window allowing the user to use the Pandora service without keeping a browser open at all times. They are as follows, ordered by operating system:
  - Windows: Pandora's Box, OpenPandora, Pandora Browse
  - Mac OS X: PandoraMan
Pandora's Jar
- Pandora's Jar also acts as a wrapper for the Pandora tuner, but includes much more functionality alongside. Pandora's Jar runs in a browser as well and provides integration into Last.fm, as well as CDDB. Pandoras Jar's main attraction and feature is the ability to extract the music files you are listening to in the tuner at the time.
PandoraFM
- PandoraFM allows listeners of Pandora custom radio to record their listening habits to their Last.fm profiles. It also allows you to tag tracks in order to build radio stations within Last.fm's interface. Within PandoraFM's interface it displays Pandora's "genome description" of the track, the Last.fm biography of the artist, and links to photos, videos, groups and other stations that are relevant to what is being listened to. A very popular mash-up of the two services.

Categories used by Pandora to determine musical matches

According to Pandora, there are "literally hundreds of musical attributes" used to categorize and match songs.

External links

@@ Line 54: / Line 54: @@
 * [http://hak5.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=828 Pandora's Jar]
 ** Pandora's Jar also acts as a wrapper for the Pandora tuner, but includes much more functionality alongside. Pandora's Jar runs in a browser as well and provides integration into [[Last.fm]], as well as [[freedb|CDDB]]. Pandoras Jar's main attraction and feature is the ability to extract the music files you are listening to in the tuner at the time.
+* [http://pandorafm.real-ity.com PandoraFM]
+** PandoraFM allows listeners of Pandora custom radio to record their listening habits to their [[Last.fm]] profiles.  It also allows you to tag tracks in order to build radio stations within [[Last.fm]]'s interface.  Within PandoraFM's interface it displays Pandora's "genome description" of the track, the Last.fm biography of the artist, and links to photos, videos, groups and other stations that are relevant to what is being listened to.  A very popular [[mash-up]] of the two services.
 ==Categories used by Pandora to determine musical matches==