Industry Figure Tom Chappell

Rachel Maddow featured an incredibly nifty web site, Pandora.com, on her radio show yesterday, and interviewed their founder, Tim Westergren.

What it is: you define ’stations’, seeding them with songs or artists that you like, and then they just start streaming music at you, whole songs, and you rate them with a Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down, or ignore them.

Pretty soon it’s sending you a bunch of free music that you like.

How does it work? It’s in conjunction with The Music Genome Project. Notably, they’ve found a way to employ people with four-year degrees in Music Theory! The musicians listen to the songs, and rate them on 400 separate characteristics.

Later, when you tell Pandora your likes and dislikes, their computers find songs that match the prominent characteristics of the songs you’ve said that you like, and that don’t match those of the songs you’ve said you hate, to produce new suggestions, which they stream to you.

Sean and I both really, really like it, so far. I’ve set up different stations for Instrumentals, Jazz, Rock Groups, and Singer/Songwriters.

It’s interesting to click on a song and see why it was recommended:

Instrumental: High Tide, by Jonathan Butler:
“Based on what you’ve told us so far, we’re playing this track because it features R&B influences, jazz influences, mild rhythmic syncopation, demanding instrumental part writing and thru composed melodic style.”

Groups: Two O’Clock, by Steel Train
“Based on what you’ve told us so far, we’re playing this track because it features a subtle use of vocal harmony, mild rhythmic syncopation, mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation, acoustic rhythm guitars and many other similarities identified in the music genome project..”

Jazz: You’re Under Arrest, by Gary Thomas:
“Based on what you’ve told us so far, we’re playing this track because it features jazz fusion elements, a groove-oriented approach and many other similarities identified in the music genome project.”

Singer/Songwriters: Long Ago And Far Away, by James Taylor:
“Based on what you’ve told us so far, we’re playing this track because it features mellow rock instrumentation, acoustic rhythm piano, acoustic sonority and major key tonality.”

Singer/Songwriters: Hey Jack Kerouac, by 10,000 Maniacs:
“Based on what you’ve told us so far, we’re playing this track because it features mild rhythmic syncopation, mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation, major key tonality, a dynamic female vocalist and many other similarities identified in the music genome project.”

…and I did like those tracks!

What’s more, they’re in full compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (they pay the artists per-play royalties, they don’t actually deliver specific songs on demand, and while they provide pause and skip forward, they don’t provide replay).

How do they make money? The free version apparently plays some ads, which I haven’t heard — I just signed up for a year for $36. Also, you can click on a song and select “Purchase album from Amazon.com” or “Purchase song from iTunes”, and they get a little referrer fee.

The fidelity of the recordings is perfectly fine (128K), and it’s not stressing out our DSL line at all, even when Sean and I are both listening to separate streams, and Sean is simultaneously playing an online video game.

All hail Rachel Maddow for getting the word out!

Listen to Rachel’s interview with Tim Westergren
The Al Franken Show (Interview starts at 1:33:45)
December 16, 2005

(Post #1 of 16 Posts in 16 Days)