Filed under: Audio, News, Windows, Macintosh, Web services
Pandora: web-based music service that finds your favorites
by Victor Agreda, Jr. Aug 21st 2005 at 4:05PM
First off, it is nowhere near public yet. In fact, it is an invitation-only affair at this point (so where's mine Tom?). But according to good ol' Robert Scoble, it could just be the Next Big Thing. At least, as far as music online is concerned. Essentially Pandora takes just a sliver of data, like a song or artist, and builds an entire station around your preference. As you listen you can further fine-tune your station, building more around genres. Up to 100 of your own stations, pulled from over 300,000 songs from over 10,000 artists. And you don't have to install anything. If it really works it just might be as cool as it sounds. Now wouldn't it be cool if a wireless iPod let you do the same? Or satellite radio?UPDATE: Well Tom was kind enough to send me an invite, and I checked out Pandora. For those of you thinking this is just some stroll down genre lane, I say you ain't seen nothin' yet. See, once you've set up one song, the Music Genome Project kicks in. It picks another song based on the music itself, not just the artist or genre. Services like Last.fm or even iTunes of Launchcast aren't comparable. It is a subtle difference, and one you really have to try yourself to understand. When I chose John Coltrane as my artist pick, it chose a pretty mellow tune. As I went to another song it explained why it chose a similarly mellow tune (by a different artist). Pandora actually looks at the components of the song, not just metadata. I was quite impressed, and I'm an iTunes junkie. I also should mention you can buy the songs you hear via iTunes or Amazon. Can't wait until it's public...
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Andreas Bovens said 5:05PM on 8-21-2005
Sounds a lot like (the redesigned) Last.fm...
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Chris said 7:27PM on 8-21-2005
Sounds pretty similar to Launchast/Yahoo Music Engine/Unlimited. Although the Music Genome Project looks pretty unique and interesting.
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donely said 4:51AM on 8-22-2005
so who can hook me up with an invite? sorenfo .at. gmail ... com
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Steve said 7:57AM on 8-22-2005
Sounds awesome! How can I get an invitation?
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santiago said 9:08AM on 8-22-2005
Very intrigued. ja.santiago at gmail dot com for any generous soul out there bearing invites.
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A. said 9:39AM on 8-22-2005
Uh..Music Genome? How absolutely backwards. And if they wish to incorporate another 10,000 artists into their application, how long before we wait until they (or their 'specialists') decide what "genes" each song has? And since when did someone else decide what "genes" a song has for each individual? What a perfectly wrong way of doing things.
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Brian said 11:08AM on 8-22-2005
Sounds along the lines of MoodLogic (great app). I'd love an invite if anyone has one. Thanks!
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Brian said 11:10AM on 8-22-2005
Sorry about that. I'd love an invite. I'm at bellis at askcts dot com. Thanks.
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Nicholas said 12:37PM on 8-22-2005
Looking forward to this, if anyone else is in a generous mood my email is methylparabex .at. gmail .dot. com
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Tom Conrad said 1:40PM on 8-22-2005
Thanks for the post Victor. I'm really glad that you're enjoying the service. I'll be sending off invites to donely, santiago, brian, nicholas in a few minutes. If others would like access, just drop an email to tomconrad-at-gmail-dot-com and I'll make sure you get an invitation right away.
Tom Conrad
CTO @ Pandora
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emily. said 12:50AM on 8-23-2005
Holy cow! It's like it has magical music telepathy! I think it complements rather than competes with last.fm (which I subscribe to). I'm having a blast seeing what Pandora will play next. I can't keep up with writing down the new songs and artists I'm hearing that I want to explore more.
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ezkiel said 9:46AM on 8-24-2005
I would love an invite. ezkiel[at]gmail[dot]come
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Leslie said 9:56PM on 8-23-2005
Hey, if anyone has an extra invitation...
watching dot forever at gmail dot com
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