Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Pandora-The Smart Radio

Everyone knows what the radio is and it works. There is a group of people that work together to compile a set of music tracks and act as disk jockeys and play them in a random or desired pattern. We listen to the radio at home, work, in the car, and many other various places. People turn to the radio to discover new and upcoming artists or to listen to their favorite songs. But, what is the worst part about listening to the radio? The listeners do not have a great deal of control over commercials or advertisements and they do not have much say in what songs are played and what songs are not. Thanks to the desire to discover new artists and control music as per the taste of each individual listener, Pandora is that answer.

Pandora radio is an internet radio which has begun to take over the music industry by storm. In their efforts to contribute to the Music Genome Project, Pandora radio allows its members to listen to free music anytime and anywhere. Music listeners have really taken a liking to Pandora because they are in control for once. The member designs their own radio stations based on the genre, artist, or song and from that point on it appears to be magic.

I chose this article because Pandora’s radio station truly is innovative and the best of its kind. With its recent renovations, such as no longer having a monthly listening hour limit, Pandora is keeping its customers happier by the song. But how does Pandora work? How does it pick song that the listener will like? According to the article and Pandora’s website, Pandora uses its own staff to rate and “assign characteristics” to each song or piece of music so that each one can be identified and grouped together. Once each piece of music is identified and marked, Pandora’s system creates a web in which all of the music is interlinked and associated with one another. Therefore, when a listener clicks the “like” or “thumbs up” icon next to the track, that song has been tracked and is now identified as a good choice. From that point on, other similar songs, artists, and genres are selected to be a “match” or a possibility that the customer will like. But it not only helps select songs you like, but it also has the icon to indicate “thumbs down” to songs or artists that you do not like. With this icon, as like with the “thumbs up” icon, it marks that song and tries to make sure that other artists or songs similar to that track are not played again. A major aspect of Pandora is to connect their customers with new and old music that they may have forgotten or have not come across yet.

I believe that Pandora is the best thing that has come to internet radio or just the regular radio since the radio was invented. I have personally been using Pandora for a long time and through it, I have come across many new artists and songs which I have come to love. I love having the ability to create as many stations as I want and being able to alter and edit what plays on that station. Having control over my radio is very important to me because I hate it when there is nothing on the radio and you are forced to listen to a bad song or commercials and advertisements. Although Pandora does have some advertisements built in and incorporated in your radio play, they are very short and hardly noticeable. It is this smart technology that creates an unforgettable link between the listener and artists that past generations lacked.

With the incorporation of smart phones, Pandora can literally be played anywhere. As one of the top rated and top selling apps, Pandora is practically on every smart phone. And with the new technologies in navigation systems, Pandora can be played through the navigation systems in cars. Pandora is taking over the music industry and its customers could not be more thrilled.

http://jeffrey-donaldson.suite101.com/pandora-radio-a94724

http://www.pandora.com/mgp.shtml

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/pandora.htm

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