Pandora CEO Tim Westergren is certain that the company’s upcoming on-demand subscription service is going to be real different.
As he put it at Midem earlier this month, Westergren reckons the likes of Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal just offer “30 million songs and a search box and ‘good f*ckin’ luck”.
“Our approach,” he continued, “is going to be to take what we know about you to make it intuitive and personalized – which will cause you to actually engage with it.”
One thing Spotify has launched which certainly goes further than “good f*ckin’ luck” is its well-received Discover Weekly playlist.
Based on smart algorithms concocted by the data scientists at its Echo Nest intelligence team, Discover Weekly personalises a list of songs for each user based on their tastes and delivers it into playlist feeds every Monday.
Now Pandora has announced a new product which promises to ‘curate a wide variety of recommendations for you on a weekly basis across Pop, Country, Hip Hop, Dance, and more’.
“Our goal with these stations is to connect new music made by artists to pandora’s massive audience in a way that’s targeted and personal.”
Ron Nenni, Pandora
This isn’t a playlist, though, it’s a station. An important difference. Still, it’s a personalised collection of songs which allow you to discover new music on a weekly basis.
Sound familiar?
“We know what you love now, we know what you’ll love next, and we’re broadening our scope by selecting the latest music in your favorite genres that you wouldn’t have discovered before,” says Pandora’s press release for its New Music Stations.
“Musical preferences are never one-size-fits-all. With the constant stream of newly released music and generalized recommendations that are made for the masses on mainstream radio formats, amazing talent gets lost in the fold,” said Ron Nenni, director of music programming, Pandora.
“Our goal with these stations is to connect new music made by artists of all shapes and sizes to Pandora’s massive audience in a way that’s targeted and personal.
“We are pushing the boundaries of discovery and serving up an experience that listeners can’t find anywhere else.”
Sounds good. But if you asked Spotify, ‘pushing the boundaries’ might be taking it a bit far.
Pandora says the ‘secret sauce’ behind these New Music Stations is its team of musicologists, who are ‘devoted to curating the best possible listening experience, serving up personal recommendations, and providing insights about their selections via station audio drops and posts on the Pandora Blog every single week’.
Music Business Worldwide
