January 17, 2012

Live from New York, it's Pandora...and Portugal. The Man

This evening, we are hosting our second live event as part of a new listener appreciation series. Tonight's concert features Portugal. The Man, and we've invited some of the band's most avid New York City fans to a free show at The Bowery Ballroom. One of the central missions of Pandora is to bring together bands and fans. We've been successfully doing that online for some time now, so it's exciting to see this offline component now coming to life!

We've started a special page on Pandora so that fans across the country can follow the series. Check out www.pandora.com/pandorapresents to see some of the special content, such as behind the scenes interviews, thoughts from fans, and special mixtapes that are curated by the featured band, including Portugal. The Man and the first band of the series, Dawes.

Our first show was held in Portland, Oregon, on December 13. There will be more shows to come throughout this year, so stay tuned for the next city and band announcement.

We're really looking forward to tonight's show (which is brought to our fans for free, courtesy of Budweiser). If you don't have a pass for tonight's show, a few have been set aside to give away at the door at 7 p.m. Get there early if you'd like to join us for an awesome night.

- Tim (Founder)

Posted by Tim Westergren at 5:30 AM | Comments (14)

December 13, 2011

Hometown town hall...

We had a great get-together last Thursday in our very own hometown of Oakland, CA at a perfect spot called Preservation Park, right downtown.

A really large crowd showed up, loaded with lots of questions and comments:

There were many questions about how we decide what music goes in Pandora, and on how artists are paid - including from a number of musicians whose music is on Pandora. There were also questions and suggestions about advertising on our site - is it targeted? For example, one married attendee asked about the frequency of dating site ads...I assured her this wasn't a hint of any kind!

Pandora is very conservative on this issue, and it is heartening that our listeners also have a pragmatic attitude about the business benefits - good thing considering how Pandora works!

Folks also had a lot of questions about specific stations (Allman Band, Led Zeppelin, flamenco music...) with an equal mix of complaints and compliments - one thing that our attendees learned, as did I, is that our suggestion option isn't as obvious as it could be. Need to fix that.

I was particularly struck by the number of people who were interested in Pandora's relationship to the local community, and how we see community work and philanthropy in terms of our company's mission. That's a major topic inside Pandora right now. We've been doing a lot, but are thinking strategically about how to expand. Oakland definitely has a lot of community pride. It's great to finally be able to meaningfully contribute to our community.

Really heartwarming question from someone to close off the evening: "how can we be better listeners?" Pretty cool :)

Tim (Founder)

Posted by Deb at 11:47 AM

November 1, 2011

Pandora playing in a store near you

I have lost count of the number of times a Pandora listener has told me that they learned about our service from their hair dresser, dentist, barista or bartender. I've also been saving a long list of emails from business owners, large and small, who have written to us in growing numbers since we launched Pandora asking when we might offer Pandora for use in a commercial setting. I'm really excited to be able to tell these folks that we now have an offering just for them. We have recently established a partnership with a company called DMX. They're an innovator in the commercial music space and have integrated Pandora into a product that is designed for use in business establishments. It is a very affordable solution that enables all types of businesses from car dealerships to medical offices to salons and coffee shops to play Pandora.

With this service, businesses can effortlessly personalize their in-store music program to match their environment and brand, and create the perfect in-store and in-office sound for you, their customers.

The next time you're settling into the dentist chair or - much better - sidling up to a bar, ask them if they're playing Pandora. If they're not, you can tell them to check it out here: www.dmx.com/pandora

- Jessica

Posted by Deb at 5:34 AM

October 14, 2011

Milwaukee Town Hall

Great town hall last night in Milwaukee at the Iron Horse.

In spite of rain and a Brewers playoff game we had a full house (though we ended in time for folks to see the last few innings, Brewers leading by one).

Lots of great conversation as usual, including quite a bit of discussion about the advertising on Pandora. Listeners clearly have a desire to find different ways to interact with the ads - book marking them, saving for later, expressing preferences on their favorite kind of ads, etc.

It was really interesting to survey listeners on their usage. In a show of hands, a substantial majority listened to Pandora on smartphones, and a substantial majority of them listened to it in the car. That's a serious trend for us. That number looked very different a year ago.

There also continues to be an appetite for greater control over station curation - ie. being able to control individual attributes. This group was clearly a group of power users!

A great visit.

Tim (Founder)

Posted by Tim Westergren at 2:59 PM

October 12, 2011

Meeting Dr. Watson, Co-Discoverer of DNA and Creator of the Human Genome Project

I had the rare treat of meeting with, and presenting Pandora and the Music Genome Project to the scientist who actually discovered DNA, Dr. James Watson. He's a wonderful man with an obvious curiosity, and some very strong opinions about Chinese opera!

Had a terrific time touring the Cold Spring Harbor facility out on Long Island, where a global assembly of some of the world's brightest natural scientists come together to do bench research. We convened for a town hall in a seminar room full of biologists and their friends to talk Genome.

It was certainly an unusual town hall with a whole new set of questions around the science and implications of the Music Genome Project.

One comment that really struck me was the idea of inserting random songs into stations to see if it would generate a spontaneous and random improvement - just like a genetic mutation! It's a really interesting notion, after all, that's the process that has defined human evolution for thousands of years.

Looking forward to our Milwaukee town hall tomorrow night (10/13) at the Iron Horse Hotel.

Tim (Founder)

Posted by Deb at 1:01 PM