The internet is a like a musical easter egg hunt for the dedicated audiophile. Between podcasts, digital downloads, music blogs and the nearly infinite amount of music services, its possible to find just about anything online if youre the persistent type. But if you’re just a casual listener looking for some new tunes, the shear number of choices can be intimidating enough to make you grin, bear it and hit replay on that worn copy of Thriller just one more time.
Thats where Pandora.com comes in. In the 2 years its been online, the Oakland based music website has become one of the leading players in a musical sea change thats altering the face of the music industry, while making online listening a whole lot easier.
To get started, listeners simply enter the name of an artist or song they like and the site generates a playlist of similar music. Listeners can then refine their online radio stations by adding new artists and giving each song a thumbs up or thumbs down. In a world of high speed complications, the service is refreshingly simple.
And it started with a simple idea. We wanted to create a radio station that allows people to match their personal music tastes says Pandora founder Tim Westergren, an award winning composer, multi instrumentalist and Stanford poli-sci grad.
The application of that simple idea was a just a bit more complicated.
Westergren, a former Hollywood film scorer, figured that if he could just distinguish the various elements of a songs structure it would then be possible to cross-reference and access an unlimited number of musical styles based on these distinctions. So in early 2000, with a head full of ideas and an ear full of musical criteria, he gathered a room of like minded comrades and began to hash out details for what eventually became the Music Genome Project, the backbone algorithm for Pandoras music selection process.
“We thought about what was the most complete detailed list of what gives a song its sound. We tried to focus on the most nuanced details and very deliberately built it piece by piece” Westergren said. As a result the project uses nearly 400 traits, including bass lines, vocal harmonies, rhythm and sonic influences, along with a team of 50 trained music theorists to categorize and file every song that gets uploaded to the site. With 15,000 news songs a month, a total catalog on the plus side of 500,000 and an analysis time of 15-45 minutes per song, its imagined that those 50 music lovers get a lot of monthly overtime.
Its wildly time consuming, Westergren admits with all the glee of a mad scientist. I dont think anyone else is crazy enough to try to do this.
Crazy has yielded big results. In addition to being nominated for tonights Oakland Indie Awards, the Internet measuring company comScore lists Pandora as the third most popular Internet station in the US (behind Yahoo Music and AOL) with 8 million registered listeners. This past March alone saw a nine per cent jump in visitor traffic.
But as any good entrepreneur knows, wherever theres a great new idea, therell be haters waiting to throw salt in their game. And when youre an innovator in the big money music world, those naysayers can attack with a vengeance.
In 2007, Pandora yielded to mounting pressure by the major record companies and blocked all music streaming by users outside the US where music licensing deals could not be agreed upon. The company is also one of the more high profile defendants in a highly publicizedCongressional hearing in which the Copyright Royalty Board and the RIAA fronted nonprofit SoundExchange have attempted to raise song royalty rates to levels Internet broadcasters say would effectively kill the emerging industry. And while those rates are in the process of being renegotiated, Westergren admits that the future of his company, and net radio in general, hangs in the balance of the decision. Its Armageddon for us now, he admits. If the current rates arent changed then yeah, were done.
For the time being however, the music is still playing and Pandora is still kicking out the jams. And while he spends his days globe trotting and espousing the wonders of Pandora, Westergren says he has a special spot on his playlist for Oakland, citing the citys hip hop and cottage music scenes as major selling points. A quick search of Pandoras offerings finds an impressive list of local acts including music from Dem Hoodstarz, The Lovemakers, the Pack, Zion I, J. Stalin, Xiu Xiu, and Blackalicious. Westergren says Pandoras team of music scouts regularly upload tracks from local artists, including those selling CDs outsidethe companys downtown headquarters.
And what does he think of the city thats provided a launching pad for his companys success?
Oakland is a great and I like the downtown area, he says, it has this overlooked business hub feel to it. Its less expensive but it has this great culture. Its relaxing and I enjoy it. We have a great amount of loyalty to the city. Now thats sweet music.
