I’m a huge Pandora fan. I used to listen to Radio Indie Pop a lot, which features many obscure indie pop bands that are hard to find anywhere else. However, I’ve found that Pandora has 90% of those artists listed and analyzed so that they can serve up suggestions for other indie pop bands.

If you haven’t used Pandora before, you should definitely give it a shot. You’re able to create stations which are based on your favorite artists or songs. The service is free, and, one of the only limitations is that you aren’t able to go back and play a specific song. In fact, you’re never allowed to play a specific song. Their business model requires that you listen and rate as much new music as possible, in hopes of monetizing on a CD sale. It’s really an effective model that let’s users branch out and discover new music in a slick flash interface.

With all that aside, Pandora’s most compelling feature isn’t the interface or the business model–it’s how they allow users to rate songs in the context of a particular station. In other music rating interfaces, you are forced to rate the song objectively. Is this particular Death Cab for Cutie song your favorite? Well, I’m not sure–it really depends on my mood. The beauty of Pandora is that each radio station is based on a particular artist or song, which inherently has some baseline mood. I am much more inclined to rate a song in the context of a mood.

For example, I might not like a particular Death Cab for Cutie song because it’s melancholy, and I’m not feeling melancholy. But, if I were melancholy, then yes, I would like it. In iTunes, I would be less inclined to give it a thumbs up. But, in Pandora, I have no qualms doing this. In essence, I am refining what the particular station should sound like. Later, I can return to the station and recreate a mood.

Now, if only iTunes could extend the stations idea to your library.

Update: It turns out there is something like this for iTunes. It’s called Soundflavor DJ, and provides you with a Pandora-esk interface into iTunes. The software pulls recommendation data from Soundflavor’s servers. Similar to Pandora, Soundflavor has years of experience in analyzing different styles of music. What’s their business model? Alongside the tracks, you’ll occasionally see similar songs that aren’t in your library, but which you can buy through Soundflavor.

Thanks for the awesome tip, Brad.

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Categories - Music, Pandora |