5.25.2007
Pandora's Foxy
Decided to do some massive MapQuesting before I head out to Seattle this Tuesday. Since I'm far from my iTunes, I thought perhaps I would check out whatever became of Pandora.com. Lo and behold, it's received a massive face lift! She's hot, really hot.
If you're not familiar with the site, I HIGHLY suggest you give it a spin. It was started by a Stanford graduate as part of a technological venture called the Music Genome Project.
One of the results of the research project was pandora.com. It's a site that houses thousands of songs that users can rate according to the 400 attributes created by the research effort. What's the result? A custom radio station specially tailored to your tastes. On top of that, it is, hands down, the perfect way to find new music that caters to your favorite genre styles.
I recall its original launch. The site was fairly rudimentary and had poor music selection. In addition the recommendations were completely off the wall. Thanks to a few with perseverance and love for the program, the site started to roll. Now it has a great selection, and, typically, its recommendations are perfectly tuned to what the user's hoping to hear.
There was a short while, however, that it seemed like the site would go the same way as epitonic.com (another music database site). Lack of funding and poor marketing seemed to me, at least, to be forcing the site under, as I hadn't seen any changes to the site for well over a year. Happy to say, however, upon my most recent visit today, it would seem the site's alive and well. The redesigned the package bumper to bumper, with a brand new interface that works brilliantly with the system.
The bittersweet side, however, is that the site does feature quite a few ads. Ultimately I think this is a good thing. The site is so dynamic and intuitive, I want every effort to be made to keep it around. In that same vein of efforts, they now have hardware (radios and portable devices) that can play your custom stations. Overall, I think pandora's in for a bright future.
Sorry, iTunes, but I'm going to be spending a bit more time with someone else.
If you're not familiar with the site, I HIGHLY suggest you give it a spin. It was started by a Stanford graduate as part of a technological venture called the Music Genome Project.
"The Music Genome Project, created in January 2000, is an effort founded by Tim Westergren, a 1988 graduate from Stanford University and spearheaded by a group of musicians and technicians to 'capture the essence of music at the fundamental level' by using over 400 attributes to describe songs." (from wiki)
One of the results of the research project was pandora.com. It's a site that houses thousands of songs that users can rate according to the 400 attributes created by the research effort. What's the result? A custom radio station specially tailored to your tastes. On top of that, it is, hands down, the perfect way to find new music that caters to your favorite genre styles.
I recall its original launch. The site was fairly rudimentary and had poor music selection. In addition the recommendations were completely off the wall. Thanks to a few with perseverance and love for the program, the site started to roll. Now it has a great selection, and, typically, its recommendations are perfectly tuned to what the user's hoping to hear.
There was a short while, however, that it seemed like the site would go the same way as epitonic.com (another music database site). Lack of funding and poor marketing seemed to me, at least, to be forcing the site under, as I hadn't seen any changes to the site for well over a year. Happy to say, however, upon my most recent visit today, it would seem the site's alive and well. The redesigned the package bumper to bumper, with a brand new interface that works brilliantly with the system.
The bittersweet side, however, is that the site does feature quite a few ads. Ultimately I think this is a good thing. The site is so dynamic and intuitive, I want every effort to be made to keep it around. In that same vein of efforts, they now have hardware (radios and portable devices) that can play your custom stations. Overall, I think pandora's in for a bright future.
Sorry, iTunes, but I'm going to be spending a bit more time with someone else.
Labels: music, online application, pandora, technology, web, web2.0
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