Pandora is a music recommendation site that is completely different. Unlike sites like Last.fm and iTunes, Pandora does not use a collaborative filtering algorithm. These site tell you what people who like your favorite songs also listen to. Instead, Pandora breaks songs into basic elements like tempo, instrumentality, tone, and type of vocals to play you songs with similar elements. This breaks the boundaries of what genre a band is supposed to be, so the results are often surprising.
Pandora is part of the Music Genome Project. Founders of the site divide songs into hundreds of musical attributes much like the Human Genome Project divides the DNA sequence into many genes. The goal is to capture the musical identity of a song based on these “genes” and find songs with similar components. It disregards the band’s image, genre, and who buys the record, and only focuses on what each song sounds like.
Since Pandora started in 2000, thousands of songs have been sequenced. Even some of the obscure bands that I am fond of are on there, which I find very refreshing. So how does it work? You just type in the name of an artist, song, or band, and it will play a song that is iconic to that band (or the song you actually type in). From there, it begins to play songs similar, and you vote whether you like it or do not want to hear it again. You can even decide a song is overplayed and tell it not to play for a month, or add qualities from a different band to the station. What is created is a totally unique radio station on your computer.
Unfortunately, you cannot take this station and play it in your home or your car unless you pay a $36 per month fee. Is it worth it? You decide.
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