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...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-21-2005 @ 5:05PM
Andreas Bovens said...
Sounds a lot like (the redesigned) Last.fm...
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8-21-2005 @ 7:27PM
Chris said...
Sounds pretty similar to Launchast/Yahoo Music Engine/Unlimited. Although the Music Genome Project looks pretty unique and interesting.
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8-22-2005 @ 4:51AM
donely said...
so who can hook me up with an invite? sorenfo .at. gmail ... com
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8-22-2005 @ 7:57AM
Steve said...
Sounds awesome! How can I get an invitation?
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8-22-2005 @ 9:08AM
santiago said...
Very intrigued. ja.santiago at gmail dot com for any generous soul out there bearing invites.
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8-22-2005 @ 9:39AM
A. said...
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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8-22-2005 @ 11:08AM
Brian said...
Sounds along the lines of MoodLogic (great app). I'd love an invite if anyone has one. Thanks!
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8-22-2005 @ 11:10AM
Brian said...
Sorry about that. I'd love an invite. I'm at bellis at askcts dot com. Thanks.
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8-22-2005 @ 12:37PM
Nicholas said...
Looking forward to this, if anyone else is in a generous mood my email is methylparabex .at. gmail .dot. com
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8-22-2005 @ 1:40PM
Tom Conrad said...
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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8-23-2005 @ 12:50AM
emily. said...
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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8-23-2005 @ 9:56PM
Leslie said...
Hey, if anyone has an extra invitation...
watching dot forever at gmail dot com
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8-24-2005 @ 9:46AM
ezkiel said...
I would love an invite. ezkiel[at]gmail[dot]come
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