The College Times article -- Pandora.com Killed the Radio Star

Headline: “Pandora.com killed the radio star”

Sub-Head: You’ll never touch your FM radio again once you experience Pandora.com.

By Josh Titus

Life Writer

Let’s pretend music has DNA. Every band you know has a genetic make-up that makes it who it is (and what it sounds like). And just like people, we all have similarities and differences. For instance, a band such as Incubus consists of genes like hard rock roots, mild rhythmic syncopation, extensive vamping, major key tonality, and political lyrics. And like Incubus, the band Radiohead has similar genes of major key tonality, subtle use of vocal harmony, and melodic songwriting. But unlike Incubus, the singer Britney Spears possesses a genetic composition of pop rock qualities, danceable grooves, minor key tonality, a breathy female vocalist, erotic lyrics, and repetitive melodic phrases. Now if only someone understood that music was as complex as the same DNA that makes us unique. Well in 2000, someone did.

In 2000, Tim Westergren started the Music Genome Project and eventually Pandora.com. Pandora.com is a web site that offers free music euphoria. At Pandora.com, you type in a band’s name that you are into and it searches its huge database of music to find bands of similar qualities or similar DNA. Each of the hundreds of thousands of songs at Pandora.com are listened to and “hand-clicked” through over 400 musical attributes including melody, harmony, tonality, rhythm, form, lyrics, and hundreds of other attributes. After typing in your band and enjoying the music, you have the pleasure to customize that particular station (with each new band you enter, you start a new station). The band you entered becomes the root of that station and with each song that the Music Genome Project deems similar, you have presidential power to sign it, veto it, or even pocket veto it. By giving the song a thumbs-up, you approve it and give Pandora.com the chance to find other songs comparable to the new one you like. By giving the song a thumbs-down, you kicked it out of the station for good. If you don’t do anything, Pandora.com puts it on the back burner and gives the song another chance later. Pandora.com is all about you- the music lover. They want you to be able to enjoy great music you already know and to find new bands that already fit your tastes. As UVSC student Jacob Russell, who spends 1 to 6 hours a day on the site, says, “Pandora.com makes for good sexy time.”

While Pandora.com is great and easy to use, it has things that can be disappointing. Freshman Stuart Buchanan-Jackson says, “The only I don’t like is that you can’t specifically play a certain song.” Due to copyright laws, it cannot play a specific song you are in the mood to hear. You are able to type in the song and hear songs similar and eventually hear the song you want, but never right away. For that reason Pandora.com was #3 behind music pay-sites iTunes and eMusic on Entertainment Weekly’s Best Music Websites. Another thing that bothers 19-year-old Jessica Hocker is “it can only skip 10 songs within an hour.” It is another copyright stipulation that restricts you from having “radio ADD” and flipping through songs too quickly. But even with these slight imperfections, Pandora.com made the list for Time magazine’s “Top 50 Web sites of 2006.” That is quite the achievement today with the Internet being as innovative as ever.

Aside from Pandora.com (my personal favorite), there are many other good Internet radio providers. Here are a few of the others that I think are worth listening to:

• http://last.fm- LastFM comes in at a very close second to Pandora.com. LastFM is arguably more comprehensive with its music selection, it keeps track of everything you listen to, and it allows you to save a personal play list.

• http://live365.com- Live365 is a huge directory of specific Internet radio genres.

• http://accuradio.com- An upcoming-and-coming internet radio.

• http://radiotime.com- A newer internet radio station with promise.

• http://musicovery.com- A very interesting way to see music. This site lets you decide the between the dark and positive, and the calm and energetic music. And then it graphs it out for you.

BYU student Devin Carroll said, “Internet radio is by far one of the best ways to discover new bands.” Everyone has agreed with that. Jacob Russell discovered Hot Chip’s “Over and Over,” Jessica Hocker found Gatsbys American Dream’s “The Giant’s Drink,” Stuart Buchanan-Jackson came across Rocky Votolato’s “Passing White Daises,” and I found Kings of Leon’s “On Call.” So say goodbye to your FM radio because after listening to the commercial-free and financially free Pandora.com, you will probably never go back.

Teaser: What do The Police and Ok Go have in common?

Pull quote: “…Pandora.com makes for good sexy time.” -UVSC student Jacob Russell