KC Pandora Meet-up

I’m not a total Pandora fanatic, but I have been a frequent user of their internet radio service for over a year. Last night, I attended a Pandora meet-up at the Screenland Theatre in Kansas City. Pandora’s founder, Tim Westergren, was there to share the company’s story as well as to answer questions and take suggestions from fans of the service. I found the whole thing quite fascinating.
It was really interesting to hear the story of Pandora’s evolution from birth of concept to product launch. During the discussion, I realized that Pandora’s core-competency isn’t the ability to provide a phenomenal, ground-breaking internet-radio service (which it does, in fact, do). What truly makes Pandora special is its ability to break-down the musical elements of individual songs into raw data that can then be parsed in any number of ways. Right now, Pandora is using that knowledge to create not only “smart,” but responsive music streams that are based on individual tastes. That application may only be the tip of the iceberg for Pandora. As their listenership grows, and they are able to observe and record listener’s behavior and musical preferences, Pandora will own a truly powerful and revealing knowledge-base.