Blog: Background Music

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August 21, 2006

Background Music

mike_arrington.jpg

Over the weekend I drove up from Oakland to Napa Valley and listened to This American Life to pass the time. As I listened to this week's stories I was struck by the critical role the background music played. Whether it's just a sonic backdrop for a moment of storytelling or a mechanism to transition from one scene to the next, the music provided important glue and subtext to the show. It wouldn't have been the same experience without it.

On Friday night Pandora had the great fortune to provide the "soundtrack" for the 7th TechCrunch Party.

TechCrunch is a website that covers emerging companies on the new Internet as well as the mobile and consumer electronic domains. All of this is the brainchild of Mike Arrington who I was lucky enough to connect with at last year's inaugural BarCamp. Mike's covered Pandora's evolution ever since.

So, as the nearly 700 guests at Mike's party mingled, Pandora played DJ and - just like This American Life - the party had a completely different edge depending on what was spinning.

This was the 7th TechCrunch party and Pandora has been the DJ at just about all of them. It's been a great way to get to know the bright people working on new web products and services as well as familiar faces from around the blogosphere like Robert Scoble, Thomas Hawk, and Scott Beale.

If you've let Pandora be the DJ at your own party, let us know how it went in the comments. We'd love to hear about it.

Photo Credit Scott Beale / Laughing Squid

Posted by Tom Conrad at August 21, 2006 06:29 PM

Comments

Tom, THANKS for doing this - you are an integral part of out parties and always will be...unless we find someone better. :-)

Posted by: michael arrington at August 21, 2006 08:36 PM

I was tempted to go to that party. No tickets and didnt feel like putting up the dough on ebay for the 2 tickets they auctioned off (techcrunch). Come to think of it I think I discovered Pandora while reading over at techcrunch!

Posted by: Hornswaggled at August 22, 2006 03:07 PM

Hi there, i quite like pandora and listen to it at work all the time, but i'm a bit dissabpointed that you don't have film music classics, like the pirates of the caribean sountrack, or the kill bill soundtracks, not to mention that there is nothing by john williams...

Posted by: clemence at August 23, 2006 06:55 AM

Pandora it's my best friend here at work.

Do you need to add a graphical 3d realtime presentation to your funky gui?
HIRE ME!

see you, and, yes, TRY TREEPIE :D

Posted by: treepie at August 23, 2006 09:31 AM

Pandora it's my best friend here at work.

Do you need to add a graphical 3d realtime presentation to your funky gui?
HIRE ME!

see you, and, yes, TRY TREEPIE :D

Posted by: treepie at August 23, 2006 09:32 AM

I love this site.

Thought i'd let you know- you all rock!! Whoever you may be! (unless you've killed someone or cheated on your girlfriend, because that's just never cool) :P

Posted by: Liz at August 23, 2006 02:04 PM

It funny that this subject came up. I had my fifth anual garden party last month. The turn out was good, the weather fine, and the vibe was cool as Miles Davis. No one knew the mysterious guest Pandora. In the past the first two years I had this party. I would have the speaker wires trailing through the house from the living room into the backyard pumping music from the carasel disc player. The third and fourth year, I got smart and loaded the Microsoft media player with 20 gigs of music on the kitchen computer from my C.D. collection. Still it was background music. Jazz, Blues, Old School R&B and folk rock. People were always too buzzin on the Margaritas and hand shakin Martinis made by yours truly to comment about the music. This year was funny, Pandora was in charge of the music, she was pummpin through my THX speaker system. Sangria and Cuba Libra's was on the poison list and they were flowin. Good people chatting around the Koi Pond and smelling the lovely roses and the living was easy. A couple commented, this was their first year here. I was playing John Legend Radio. They said who is that? so I broke it down to them. Then I switch to another station that I call double olve music, it was a pink martini station. A freind of mine walked in the kitchen and asked for the CD cover of the artist playing at that time. I had to expose my little secret. "No, no, my brother." "This aint from my collection but check it out." I showed him the lady and how she worked and he was like "Damn thats some serious bad ass." (I just love comments in slang) It started a conversation with others, then the request started coming in. I think I filled 85% of the request, not bad I say if I could teach Pandora how to scratch music for the middle age hip hoppers, I would have hit 95% :)

Bright Moments
Roland

Posted by: Roland at August 23, 2006 02:27 PM

Ilove ur program!!!!

Posted by: Irene Terrazas at August 23, 2006 05:28 PM

Great site! I love it!

Posted by: ;O at August 24, 2006 12:58 PM

My wife used Pandora for a winterguard banquet last spring. She asked all the girls to email her with their favorite song, and then created a station using the picks. Worked out great!

Posted by: Daniel at August 24, 2006 01:39 PM

You know what would be a cool feature? To be able to shuffle your stations. So it picks random songs from random stations. That way you arent tied down. COOL!!

Posted by: Ryan Edwards at August 24, 2006 02:49 PM

hi, i'm from lithuania and i'm listening it all the time, at work at home and etc. I have created my personal station about rock from 7 artist, called it "hot rock" and i'm crazy about it!
Thank you for such a new artist for me, like kazier chiefs, ok go, queens of the stone age and chikinki!!!

Posted by: Graduss at August 25, 2006 12:57 AM

I have to say, this is one of the most ingenious and innovative ideas I've seen in my many years of computer experience and developing.
I use this just about every second when I'm on the computer now, while my 50GB music collection is gathering dust in the meanwhile ;)
I've recommended it to all my friends, and have made a fair share of people start using her.

Cheers for a great idea,
Vegard

Posted by: Vegard at August 25, 2006 06:55 AM

I agree with everyone here... Thanks you for doing this, work is a lot more enjoyable now!

I think you should consider getting a forum, let people talk to each other about their musical discoveries and such = P

Posted by: Cab0oze at August 25, 2006 08:26 AM

I was introduced to Pandora by a friend from Mexico. I used it selections and have since added a link to my blog. It has worked out very well. You would have to go there to see what I have done. Anyway, I would like to suggest that you make a small image that can open when people like myself link your music/Pandora on our blogs. As it is we get a whole page and while that is OK for those who really are interested in the music and how to get it, it is often overwhelming to a casual surfer.

Posted by: Abraham Lincoln at August 25, 2006 04:06 PM

well, I've never said this before, but your FREE webradio is worth SOOO much more. I am a broka ass nucca, but the quality of chosen music astounds me every day. honestly, the visual ads mean nothing since I can minimize the window. Look, I think you are doing something special, but I hope you realize your marketing potential.

contact me anytime for a glowing reference!

Thanks for the new music!

Zack

Posted by: Zack at August 25, 2006 09:17 PM

I actually went out and bought three Squeezebox's so that I an have pandora DJ all of my parties.. I think to date my parties have sold 30 or so Squeeze box's and god only knows how many pandora memberships..

Keep up the good work.

Posted by: James Conner at August 26, 2006 09:22 PM

I love pandora. but lately this changing the page theme (to red, reloading the rest of the page) is getting really annoying. can there please be an option to disable it? thanks.

Posted by: mari at August 27, 2006 01:39 PM

I use it at every single party we have, which is about one a week.

Posted by: Julian Murdoch at August 28, 2006 06:12 AM

this website is absolutely amazing... thanks for this! cheers!
|fb|

Posted by: frank bell at August 28, 2006 10:04 AM

Suggestion: To change my stations randomly, so
I can listen to different styles w/o having to include too different styles/musics in one station because the results are unpredictable.
Pandora is great! I discovered it in a Brazilian magazine. Thanks.

Posted by: Joana at August 28, 2006 01:41 PM

This has got to be my dream come true! For a while i was listening to internet radio which tends to play stuff i am not fond of sprinkled with some good tunes. This "Pandora" plays 90% of what i like which is some good damn odds! Thank you and count on me to give info if it helps.

Posted by: Julio Ginel at August 28, 2006 07:51 PM

Fantastic site, well done! Really enjoying it so far. Would love to see some classical music in there as well. Just a thought!

Keep up the good work.

Posted by: dintbo at August 29, 2006 04:00 AM

Hi! You´re doing a great job with pandora! But I do have a suggerstion for an improvement. As one of the spots by which you analyse songs by, is if they contain a guitar solo or not. Perhaps you could add a similar one with whether there is a synth solo or not?

Thankyou for some great music! :)

Posted by: Sebastian at August 29, 2006 06:35 AM

Brilliant! Thank you Katie for introducing us to this great site.

Looking forward to hearing some great french music. Please don't limit to European as North American is also great. Think Louisianne, Québec, Ontario, New Brunswick, Mass and Maine. There should be a good market potential as I've yet to find any good français music site.

Cheers!

Posted by: Lisa at August 29, 2006 01:00 PM

Hi, I like Pandora very much. It overcomes any traditional radio station, on my opinion. The music choice is wide, BUT... I tried to search Pandora for world music (Russian and Chineese music for example) and it was nothing there. So... I think Pandora is great as is, but can be even greater if will add some world music!

Posted by: Titatuh at August 30, 2006 01:34 AM

I got introduced to Pandora about 9 months back and have been playing it ever since, every single day! I've introduced Pandora to a few of my friends and all of us swear by it now! It's the best thing to happen to a music lover!

And ofcourse the last 5 weekend bashes in my apt have had nothing but Pandora and my neighbor was jealous of my music collection, till I told him about Pandora... and now he plays it too!

Cheers!
Ramya
Mumbai, India

Posted by: Ramya Sharma at August 30, 2006 05:24 AM

Hi all!
I love Pandora! she has introduced me to so many new artists and I love being able to shut down the music I don't love.
I have a different station for lots of different moods. The one I like best is the instrumental station. I listen mostly at work so I need the soft music to keep me on task. If anyone has someone I haven't found yet just let me know. I'm always loking for new songs. And if you want to share just let me know and I'll send it over. Email auntyemm@aol.com

Posted by: auntyemm at August 30, 2006 05:51 AM

wow. pandora rocks. i fell in love with some music i never heard! i visit everyday! luv u guys!

Posted by: me at August 30, 2006 07:19 AM

Fantastic site. I've got you on 4 of my computers. My only request is to get a library of classical music also. I haven't been able to get one clssical station going no matter what artist or song I enter. But I love you anyway.

Keep up the great music.

Posted by: Terry at August 30, 2006 02:19 PM

I love Pandora and can think of only one thing to improve it. I want the option to specifically request a song by the artist. In other words I have created a radio station with one of my favorite artists as the main music - but can't seem to get my favorite songs from that specific artist - from the artist's past albums.

Posted by: Kathryn D. at September 1, 2006 01:57 PM

PANDORA yesss that what'S all about...;D
even a young 20 years old homie...;D from the beatifull country POLAND is pushing the borders of PANDORA further and further.......
Peace to ya'll

Posted by: Peter M at September 3, 2006 03:55 AM

Pandora has revolutionized the way i search for the music i want to listen to, I find one of my favorite artists like Floater, or 30 Seconds to Mars, I listen, find out what other bands tickly my fancy when they wander by, and then when i have a chance i buy them, soon ill be able to buy them off Amazon from your Website, so hopefully that will help you out if they see some return coming from your website. My house has become the number one place to have a party because unlike normal we dont have find out what cd we want to listen to which most of the time has little in the way of songs we can dance to, thats what Benny Benassi is for. haha :D Thanks so much. You guys have made all my freinds think of my place as our own little personal club.

Posted by: Garrett at September 5, 2006 07:17 PM

Yeah Pandora is the best!!
But its something wrong about the songs selected by Pandora. Once i was adding punk rock bands and the when Pandora played some of them, suddenly played "HANSON BROTHERS", a band that doesn't match with punk rock bands. Aw man that really sux.
Except for that Pandora still rox!!
Nice work guys!

Posted by: Henry Scott Medeiros at September 6, 2006 10:44 AM

Hey! Pandora is great. One of my yoga students who loves Coltrane told me about the site. This is my first evening and she'll be on regularly. I look forward to emailing some of my stations to friends and thanks for the referral to Maktub. The music is fantastic. Thanks again.

deb

Posted by: deburrito at September 9, 2006 06:59 PM

I simply love pandora. Really great! One sugestion: why not in the tab "guide us" one option to say just : This music shouldn't play in this radio! , sometimes happens that i do like the music but it is not playing in the right radio...and I am obliged to say I don't like this music.
Keep up the good work!

Posted by: Kangra at September 13, 2006 10:58 AM

INGENIOUS!

Posted by: Peter at September 15, 2006 04:55 PM

As a video editor I have pandora on whenever I am working. I have to say nothing makes me cut a feature better or a doc. faster then when the music fits the mood. Pandora lets me change my tastes instantly and it really has been an inspiration/help in my work. Keep up the good work!

Posted by: Tomas Puig at September 15, 2006 09:48 PM

Hi there Pandora...i like the theory befing this project. There are a lot of songs in here from all types of genre and countries...however i feel that you may need to update and expane your music by genre....for example i like reggaeton but i've noticed now when i log in my account and i listen to me stations they are practically the same songs just in different order. Just alittle advice.....from me....

god bless

Posted by: Carolina at September 21, 2006 12:14 PM

This is a phenomenal idea...I love it. I'm learning about artist that I've never heard of simply because I've searched for some of my favorite artist and now I have new favorites! Keep up the good work!

Posted by: Melanie at October 14, 2006 09:25 PM

I agree that lack of world music is a distinct drawback; talk about expanding horizons!

Terry: the reason they can't play specific songs is that it would be a violation of copyright.

Posted by: Kristina at March 2, 2007 01:04 PM

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