Pandora is a leader amid a growing group of web sites and services that look to the user to provide their insight about what kind of music or media we like and then the recommendation engine offers up other artists and music to help expose us to new music. Some others working in this space include last.fm, Tagworld, Mercora, and LAUNCHcast.I had the opportunity to meet with Tim Westergren, Pandora's Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, who has been traveling across the country in recent months meeting with listeners at town hall gatherings. Westergren was in New England for town hall meetings in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island. To see if Westergren will be in your neck of the woods, visit blog.pandora.com.
This is our first episode of Well-Rounded Radio with absolutely no music...but of course, since Pandora is a music discovery service, it makes the most sense for each of you to have your own listening experience along with this episode by setting up a station at Pandora. So, once you get your audio levels for each set up, you can listen to the interview and some music from Pandora.com.
If you’re new to Pandora, it’s free to use and easy to sign up. Visit pandora.com and all you need to divulge is your age, zip code, and an email address. For either Mac or PC users, you’ll also need to have Flash, at least version 7, which can download for free.
Apologies to our listeners outside the US; Pandora currently isn’t able to provide streaming of its service beyond the US due to rights’ licensing, but based on my conversation with Westergren, that may be coming in the future...but if non-US listeners have other similar services they are using, post a comment on them and tell us your experience.
Photo credit: Rafael Fuchs
