Video Killed the Radiostar, Pandora Brought it Back

by Caitlin Servilio

Let’s say it’s been a long, hard day of school. You’re lying exhausted on your bed, emotionally drained, and you think to yourself, “Know what would make me feel better at this moment? Some sweet jams, that’s what.” So you turn on the radio, and prepare yourself for some hardcore tunes. But there’s a problem, isn’t there?

Of course there is, and it’s this: you can’t find any songs you like on the radio.

In contemporary society there are so many genres and sub-genres of music that regular radio can’t possibly encompass it all. It’s all too easy for us to retreat into our own little individual worlds of CDs and downloaded music. However, when we do this, it’s almost impossible for us to learn about new bands or artists we might like. We’re afraid to try new things, because we only want to listen to music that sounds like music we already know. Basically, we’re already turning into our parents, who are too frightened of change to listen to anything more recent than pre-breakup Simon and Garfunkel.

But don’t panic. Pandora is here.

Do you want to listen to a radio station that only plays songs that sound like “With or Without You” by U2? You can! Do you want to find out what other bands sound like Gnarls Barkley? You can! Do you ever feel like getting down to songs stylistically similar to “If You Want It To Be Good Girl (Get Yourself a Bad Boy)” by the Backstreet Boys? You do, admit it! And you can! If you sign onto Pandora! Huzzah!

Pandora is a free Internet radio service, but unlike any other—this one will actually play music you like. It’s only been out about nine months now, but it has already made a huge splash in the online community. To get the full amazing story of Pandora, I talked to Tim Westergren, its founder.

Caitlin Servilio: So Pandora was born out of the Music Genome Project. Can you explain what that is?
Tim Westergren: The MGP is a musical taxonomy. We identify about 400 attributes that describe the way a song sounds. These attributes are similar to primary colors—they’re things like melody, harmony, rhythm, vocal style, all the little details of a song. We have about 40 musicians working on the project, and we’ve been working on it over seven years now. Pandora uses our findings from the MGP.

CS: What makes Pandora so unique?
TW: The listener can make his or her own stations by typing in the name of an artist or band that they like, and Pandora matches it to other similar sounding songs. You get to hear a lot of music you never heard before that you find out you like. The discovery part is what’s most important about Pandora.

CS: How did you decide to start up something like Pandora?
TW: I’m a musician and I spent ten or eleven years being in rock bands, living in vans and traveling around the country. I know what it’s like, so I wanted to help bands find audiences more easily than traveling 100,000 miles to clubs. The purpose is to allow bands to get some exposure.

CS: Do you ever hear back from bands thanking you for the opportunity?
TW: Yeah, we get that a lot, more and more. It’s incredibly gratifying having an impact. Bands tell us that their iTunes sales have grown since being featured on Pandora.

(Please go here for the second part of the Westergren interview.)

(The image is a painting from J.W. Waterhouse and is not affiliated with the Pandora service.)

Internet Radio
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