Pandora and Web 2.0

From wsuwiki

1 Overview of Pandora
2 Features
3 Restrictions
4 The Music Genome Project
5 Pandora and Web 2.0 Innovations
6 References

Overview of Pandora

Pandora is an online radio service that was created using the Music Genome project. On the Pandora website, users can create a profile, on which they can add stations. There is a station for each artist that the user enjoys, and the stations chosen by the user will play at random once the user has signed into their account. Pandora will also recommend to the user artists who are similar to the ones they enjoy.

Features

Users can rate the songs on their station as being either favorable or unfavorable, determining if they should be played on the station (as well as similar songs). A user can also choose not to play a certain song for a month, or move songs to another station. Links on Pandora enable users to buy songs from Itunes and Amazon. Included with the many other options is a setting that allows the user to decide whether they want songs with explicit lyrics to play on their stations. Pandora can also be linked to Social Network Sites; there is a Facebook application that allows users to put their Pandora radio stations on their Facebook profiles[1].

Restrictions

Pandora only serves users that live in the United States, as they have blocked foreign IP addresses. Rewinding or repeating songs isn’t possible, and there are 40 hours maximum of free listening per month (free listening can be unlimited for the rest of the month with a payment of $ 0.99). And play of a single artist is limited. With the vista player, there are several limitations on Pandora (music cannot be directly added to the player, songs cannot be renamed)[2].

The Music Genome Project

Created in January 2000, The Music Genome Project is the brain child of Will Glaser, Jon Kraft, and Tim Westergren. Their creation uses near 400 attributes to describe songs and a complex mathematical algorithm to organize them. Any given song is represented by a vector that contains around 150 genes. Every Gene corresponds to a characteristic of the music (type of instruments used, background vocals, etc...). The Project deals with all kinds of entertainment products, such as movies, music, games, ringtones, and wallpaper, among other products[3]. Interestingly enough, music recommended to the user may not be of the same genre or within the confines of the user’s usual preference.

Pandora and Web 2.0 Innovations

The Long Tail and using the web as a platform

The station carries thousands of artists, including extremely obscure ones. Pandora reaches out to the edges of the entire web. The Recommendations given by Music Genome’s taste simulation technology are broad, revealing new items to the users that they otherwise would have ignored.

Harnessing collective intelligence

One of the main focuses of web 2.0 has always been collaboration between the creator of a site and the users of the site, and this is seen quite well in Pandora. The more stations that are created on Pandora, the more the site grows. The users feed the site information every time they search for music and add a station. With each interaction, more data is gathered and the user’s profiles are enhanced and “adapted”, tailoring recommendations more and more accurately each time[4].

Data is the next Intel inside

Pandora has a certain class of core data-the music genome project! The data is run by Savage Beast technologies. Savage Beast, Amazon, Best buy, borders, and many other businesses utilize “recommendation technologies” that seek to connect music buyers with varying tastes to songs and artists that they may be unfamiliar with. But unlike competitors, Savage beast bases its recommendations on a more scientific method- a database breaking down songs into categories by very specific criteria. For instance, the depth of bass, the sound of the vocals, and other features. So far Savage beast is the only company to have utilized this database proficiently[5].

The end of software release cycle

Pandora keeps users up to date on their radio blog, where they can get feedback from users. Since a site like Pandora is never static, it is updated on a continual basis with emerging artists, latest releases, and a growing collection of catalogue titles[6].

Software above the level of a single device

All the Pandora stations a user has created on the web, that user can enjoy on their mobile phones as Pandora on the phone is fully integrated with Pandora on the web. Everything you create, rate, or bookmark on the phone also appears the next time you’re back on the web. This also holds true for home digital music systems that have partnered with Pandora, such as the HP dreamscreen[7].