Pandora is a new technological advancement for users in America that allows them to listen to music for free.
Photo by Ed Gloor
The music industry today is changing drastically, with the advances of technology pushing more and more artists to release songs or albums via the Internet.
Within the browsers of any Internet provider a person may find websites that allow the illegal downloading of songs, or the ability to buy an entire album online. The online albums are much cheaper than any record found in a music store. It is also easier to click a button to get an album rather than drive to the nearest store with the chance they do not even carry the specific music. The good thing about the Internet is that it is always reliable; I have always been able to find the artist, song, or whatever I have wanted from somewhere along the intraweb.
A new addition to the Internet is the big hit website, Pandora, which is an online radio as well as a music recommendation station. Pandora started in 2007 in San Francisco California, and has since been named as one of the top companies out of the San Francisco Bay area.
Here is how Pandora works: the music is streamed online and plays out of speakers from a computer or laptop. While listening to a specific song or artist, Pandora will automatically choose a song or artist that is similar to the present one playing. An example of this is when I am listening to a song by The Cure, Pandora intelligently mixes in bands that include Tears For Fears and Soft Cell. In fact, listeners can click on a button that will give details into how the current song or band is playing is similar to the playlist. All three of these bands can be linked by the years in which they came into the music scene, as well as the type of music each plays.
Pandora is an easy way to listen to music, and it’s also free. One must simply register, which is free, and can then begin a journey into a mix of music all can enjoy. After signing up, Pandora will ask the listener to type in an artist or song, in which it may or may not begin to play. The song or artist chosen will be turned into a “station,” like a radio, that will play songs that are similar to whatever was chosen. If the song chosen is a good song, the user can give a thumbs up, meaning it could be played again in the future. A thumbs down on a song will skip to the next song and make sure that that song is never played in the playlist again. A user is only allowed 12 skips in a 24-hour time-frame unless the program is upgraded to “pro,” which can have unlimited skips. It must be taken into consideration that in order to get songs of another genre to play, one must start a new station. It is quite obvious that a Led Zeppelin song will not play after a Lady GaGa song, unless the user does a quickmix of all the stations, or expands the station. An expansion of a certain station will allow multiple genres to be played in one. If I were to expand my folk station to include metal music, then metal and folk will be in the same station. A quickmix takes all of the stations a user may have and mixes them together.
Pandora is an easy way to enjoy music, as well as being cost-effective.
Pandora is a great way for me to listen to music. I only have four stations, because creating a station for metal does not bring up songs or bands that I specifically enjoy, and I usually get angry at skipping songs, and delete the station. Thus I have Elliott Smith, Right Away Great Captain!, Alexi Murdoch, and The Cure radio stations, and I can enjoy most of all music from these specific genres. I quickmix the stations because I love all of these bands and genres they fit into. I rarely ever have to thumbs down a song, and my musical horizon gets broadened as I find new artists to listen to.
There are pros and cons to choosing Pandora over another music playing device. The great thing about listening to Pandora is the fact that it will broaden the spectrum of music a person listens to. The user can get an instant biography of the band that is playing currently, which allows for an in-depth look at music and understanding of why the listener may like the song. The user can also buy the song that is playing at the touch of a button. The cons of Pandora are hard to come by, but the fact that the user has no control over what song will come next turns some people off. In an iTunes playlist, one can choose which songs go after each other based on what the user thinks is best. Not having control over the playlist is bothersome. The user also does not have a list of songs that have recently played. If I heard a song two days ago on the specific station but cannot remember the name, there is no way to look and find what song it was.
In the end, Pandora’s constant streaming music is a wonderful tool for music lovers. Unlike Pandora’s box from greek mythology, opening Pandora on a web browser will not unleash the evils of the universe into the world.
