Pandora (music service)

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For other uses, see Pandora (disambiguation).

Pandora
Screenshot of the new Pandora homepage.
URL	http://www.pandora.com/
Commercial?	Yes
Type of site	Internet radio
Registration	Optional
Owner	Pandora Media, Inc.
Created by	The Music Genome Project

Pandora is an automated music recommendation and Internet radio service created by the Music Genome Project. Users enter a song or artist that they enjoy, and the service responds by playing selections that are musically similar. Users provide feedback on the individual song choices — approval or disapproval — which Pandora takes into account for future selections.

While listening, users are offered the ability to buy the songs or albums at Amazon.com or iTunes Store. Over 400 different musical attributes (see List of Music Genome Project attributes) are considered when selecting the next song. These 400 attributes are combined into larger groups called focus traits. There are 2,000 focus traits. Examples of these are rhythm syncopation, key tonality, vocal harmonies and displayed instrumental proficiency.

The Pandora media player is based on OpenLaszlo, allowing for simple cross platform portability; it plays through a browser. Pandora can be listened to through any Slim Devices' or Sonos^[1] product(s). MSN Radio stations now run off Pandora.com and use Pandora accounts rather than Windows Live IDs.

The service has two subscription plans: a free subscription supported by advertisements, and a fee-based subscription without these ads. On May 22, 2007, there was a change of the Pandora interface with new pull down menus and buttons. There are also now advertisements "Pandora on the Go" for phones and "Pandora at Home" for hardware and speakers for home purchases. On November 15, 2007, the service introduced "Pandora Classical"^[2], now incorporating classical music from the baroque period to the contemporary period into its Music Genome Project.

1 Recent copyright developments
2 Using and tuning
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Recent copyright developments

Due to recent Copyright Royalty Board rulings that increase fees and ask for licensing guarantees, the Pandora service is no longer available in countries other than the United States.^[3]^[4] These rulings affect all Internet-based radio stations (terrestrial radio is not affected).

An email was sent out to all UK listeners explaining that UK IP addresses would be barred from 15 January 2008.^[5]

[edit] Using and tuning

Choosing one artist results in all that artist's catalogued styles being used as a starting point, which may include those which may not be considered representative. Selecting representative tracks by the artist may give results closer to what was intended.

Each track played can be responded to in four ways:

Thumbs up - Play more like this.
No response - No change in preference.
Thumbs down - Do not play this track again, play fewer that are similar. Also skips if any skips are left.
- A second negative response to the same artist will ban that artist from the selected playlist unless that artist has been manually added to the playlist or has received one or more positive votes.
Zzzz - You may choose to not play a track for one month if you are tired of hearing it. Also skips if any skips are left

Users can also bookmark songs and artists, read information about them (Backstage options) and buy music.

[edit] Limitations

The content licensing imposes a number of restrictions:

Pandora is currently only licensed to provide music to users in the United States. Initially this was enforced by requiring a US ZIP code at registration but since May 3, 2007 Pandora has checked the users' IP address.
Rewind or repeat is not possible.
Only six skips per hour are allowed, including those resulting from a thumbs down response. Previously, if at least two music stations had been created, switching from the current playing station to a different one and back allowed skipping past the built-in limitation. However, this has been changed so that when the user switches back, the same song from the current station will still continue. It is possible to skip the song by refreshing the page when one is out of skips.
Play of a single artist is limited. Pandora provides similar music, not a play-on-demand service.

There are also some other limitations:

Pocket PCs using Flash 7 for Windows Mobile, and other such devices cannot use the Pandora tuner either.
Users are unable to rate genres, albums, or artists. A user may "ban" an artist by giving a thumbs down to two of that artist's songs, provided the artist was not used to create the station or added to the station.

[edit] Other Features

Pandora Podcast, a musicology show updated every few weeks in the form of a podcast. It is hosted by Kevin Seal of the band Griddle. Each show is based around a specific music topic, and features guest musicians and Pandora experts who normally analyze the music featured on the Pandora website.^[6]
A Facebook application developed to allow users to put their Pandora radio stations on their Facebook profiles.^[7]

[edit] Hacks

Despite Pandora's concerns of violating the Music Genome's rules and breaking copyright law, a few hacks for Pandora have sprung up to enhance the functionality and ease of use already present. For example:

Wrappers for the Pandora Tuner
- These applications isolate the Pandora tuner into its own separate window allowing the user to use the Pandora service without keeping a browser open at all times.
  - Windows: OpenPandora, Pandora's Box, Pandora Browse Note: Pandora has recently introduced a beta of their own desktop application that serves the same function as the various wrapper programs. This application (http://www.pandora.com/desktop) uses Adobe AIR to move the web-based application to the desktop.
  - Mac OS X: PandoraMan, PandoraBoy, PandoraJam
OpenPandora
- OpenPandora is also a wrapper, but adds several additional ways to control the Pandora tuner like multimedia keyboard and the Wii Remote. OpenPandora also adds a miniplayer and integration with Last.fm, Live Messenger, Skype and Xfire. OpenPandora is open source and licensed under GNU General Public License.
Pandora's Jar
- Pandora's Jar also acts as a wrapper for the Pandora tuner, but includes much more functionality alongside. Pandora's Jar runs in a browser as well and provides integration into Last.fm, as well as CDDB. Pandoras Jar's main attraction and feature is the ability to extract the music files you are listening to in the tuner at the time.
- PandoraRip, also found at the Pandora Jar website, is an automated software that will copy, tag and organize Pandora's tracks, and download album art, by normally listening to the tracks. Its main features are tagging and adding album art to the tracks.
PandoraFM
- PandoraFM allows listeners of Pandora custom radio to record their listening habits to their Last.fm profiles. It also allows you to tag tracks in order to build radio stations within Last.fm's interface. Within PandoraFM's interface it displays Pandora's "genome description" of the track, the Last.fm biography of the artist, and links to photos, videos, groups and other stations that are relevant to what is being listened to.
FoxyTunes
- FoxyTunes is a Firefox extension that displays currently playing Pandora song information on browser status-bar, along with volume controls and a button that finds and raises the Pandora player window or tab. The extension also supports the PandoraFM site and many additional media players and music services
Connection through a proxy server
- Accessing Pandora through a proxy server allows users to mask their IP with an IP that appears to reside in the US. See Proxy server