Pandora (http://www.pandora.com)

What the heck is it?

-Free Internet Radio (named after the Greek goddess, rewarding curiosity)
--Great way to find a new favorite song or artist
--Rate songs and artists to create stations
--Very popular among teens and college students
---Easy to transport/no downloading
---Intuitive, easy to sign up.
---FREE and GRATIS and FREE

-Music Genome Project
--Born in 2000
--Comprehensive Music Analysis
---50 music analysts
---Study and collect details of songs, listening one by one
20 to 30 minutes per song
---Melody, harmony, vocals, rhythm, lyrics (400 attributes)

-How does it work?
--Plug in a song or an artist in the little box.
--Pandora fetches recommendations
--Rate as you go: like it, don’t like it, tired of it (play next month)


What is the site for, generally?


-Music Discovery
--Using the 400 song attributes (political lyrics, use of marimba)
--User rating system

-Find music you already love, find music you’re going to love.

-Share your “discovered” music, create stations and share with patrons.
--Send stations to a friend’s email.
--Get basic info on a song, artist, or album.
--Want to buy it? Links to iTunes or Amazon available.


How could it help promote a teen music collection to the Internet Community?


-Potentially, a library could make a station (or up to 100 stations)

-The stations could bookmark songs and albums or MP3s owned by library.
--Devoted librarian would periodically update the station and monitor.
--Bookmarked albums would be promoted and highlighted to end user.

-Library’s Profile Page has a persistent link that can market music collection

-Teens can be sent stations via email, according to their musical tastes.

-Bookmarked songs and artists could be requested via the Internet.


How can it help connect teens to new music (aka listener’s advisory)?

-Exposure to new music via the 400 attributes.
--Helps teen patron find ways to describe musical preferences.
--Quick “Novelist” style appeal. Listen-alikes are usually 6 per song.

-Teens can post comments which can promote discussion.

-Also able to get RSS feeds for library website or Newsreader (HTML friendly)
--Bookmarked Songs
--Bookmarked Artists
--Stations Galore!

-Podcasting also available (more to come, should think more about this one.)


How can it be integrated with other services?

-Podcast series is very educational. Trance vs. Techno/Recording Vocals, etc.

-Fairly reliable collection development tool.

-Programming possibilities

-Not just for teens, but for adults, too.