Opening Up Pandora’s Box

Discovering new music has never been easier than it is today with the help of the internet.  The treasure chest of musical goodness that the internet has at its disposal is limitless.  However, searching throughout the wide spectrum of the internet can be a daunting and overwhelming task.  The team at the Music Genome Project adressed this issue quite effectively when they established Pandora Radio.

Pandora Radio is a very simple and intuitive system that allows its users to pick a song and the site plays songs that are simliar to the song selected.  The system accomplishes this task by comparing over 400 musical attributes present in the songs.  The user also has the ability to favorite a song or dislike a song that is randomly selected by Pandora.  Pandora takes into account how the user reacts to each song that is selected by the system and includes the user decisions into the musical attributes used to select the next song on the playlist.

Pandora’s primary source of income comes in the form of advertisements displayed on the site.  However, Pandora also sells subscriptions that allow its users to access unlimited online streaming for $.99.  Along with the payed subscriptions, Pandora also offers free subscriptions that allow users to stream on the site for no longer than 40 hours per week.  In addition to the original online website, Pandora also offers a mobile application that offers almost all of the same features as the website.  All in all, Pandora offers a very simple and easy to use service that greatly enhances its users ability to discover and listen to fresh new music.