Critical Analysis: Pandora

I'll admit that before this assignment,

I had never heard of Pandora before. I would just mindlessly listen to z100 or any other radio station just to fill up my time. But now, I'm convinced that Pandora is the better solution. I created an account and entered a couple of musicians like Johnny Flynn, The Black Keys, and Iron & W

ine. Not only did Pandora play great songs from those artists, but the

site also played songs from different bands that I've never heard of. I actually liked almost all of the musicians that Pandora played, such as R.L. Burnside. To me, this is so much better than listening to the same ten

songs on z100 all day. I get to listen

to what I want and explore new music. I think Pandora really puts power back into the listene

rs hands because we have the choice to like or dislike something. There's a system that dictates what to play, but I still have the option to skip something I don't like and move on to something else.

Many radio stations today seem to play the

same singles all the time. I've

bounced between three radio stations that were all playing the same Lady Gaga song before and I'm honestly tired of it. With Pandora, that doesn't happen because the site has a large va

riety of artists. Also, there aren't as many commercials on Pandora. I can listen to about 5 or 6 songs and I only have to suffer through 30 seconds of one com

mercial, instead of listening to several minutes of advertising.

The NY Times article about Pandora's Music Genome Project was very interesting. It has definitely helped me understand how Pandora is calculating my musical tastes. It's a lot more scientific than looking at the top selling albums of the day and playing singles from those albums. It's also a lot more personalized and I've really come to appreciate that. Pandora uses real musicologists to break down the songs in order to determine what the listener prefers. For example, I didn't even put one of my favorite artists (Ben Harper) on the list, and Pandora played him. I thought it was interesting how the president of CBS Interactive Music Group said, “Music is an inherently social experience." He said this because it's all about how we share music and how we tell stories. On Pandora, the site shares music with me and in turn I can share it with other people and connect with fans of the bands that I like. Maybe Pandora is more than an internet radio site. It seems to be taking radio in a completely new direction of personalization and social connection.