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October 07, 2006
Boston, MIT Recap
Memorable day in Boston, capped off with a terrific MIT meetup.

Spent the morning touring the Berklee College of music - amazing facility. State of the art everything. Kids everywhere with guitars, saxophones, drumsticks... was waiting for everyone to suddenly break out into some big choreographed number... "fame?"

Pretty stunning city this time of year. Rowers on the Charles River.

Full range of disciplines - performance, composition, business & technology. Thanks to David for the very informative tour - much appreciated.

Also had the honor of meeting Kurzweil's second employee... responsible for the world's greatest digital emulation of an acoustic piano sound.

Stopped in at Looney Tunes, a throwback record store just down the street from Berklee. 20 feet high stacks of cardboard boxes full of vinyl... Interesting to know that while large music retailers are struggling, the indie stores have been doing just fine. The clerk's eyes lit up when I asked him for his recommendations of great local bands... didn't take long to fill a bag up for me.

Then headed over for a great afternoon gathering at the Harvard Business School - entrepreneur group and media/entertainment group. Quite a little utopia they've got going there.
MIT was off the hook! Thanks again to Daniel for being such a welcoming and helpful host - always great to have someone who's game to go way above and beyond the call of duty (Daniel... how does Ohio and Michigan sound next week? All expenses paid). Well over 200 people showed up for an almost 3 hour music discussion marathon at one of the cavernous lecture halls... not hard to picture Richard Feynman up there. The chalk board was even full of fresh scribbling of some esoteric mathematical formula...

College kids, professors, musicians and Bostonites. Completely cleaned out our hats and shirts! Not surprisingly there was a lot of talk about third party software development. Tools built off the Pandora backbone. Tricky one for us because we need to be able to place ads on other versions of the service.

I'm definitely sensing from these many audiences a sense of anticipation that things are changing - that the music biz will look very different in a few years.
Thanks to the attendee who volunteered a show 'n' tell of his latest high end Slim Devices box.

Hit the road for Providence, RI...
Posted by Tim Westergren at October 7, 2006 10:29 AM
Comments
you should come around near eastern nebraska, we've got a bunch of great bands around here looking to get ahead, such as '0 for 7'
Posted by: Logan at October 7, 2006 01:08 PM
niceeee im from boston been here all my life and goto school at suffolk university (down the street from Berklee.) Boston is amazing I wouldnt move for the world!
Posted by: Ray at October 8, 2006 12:08 PM
Hello - so much respest for your site. You could have your pockets filled up with respect and you would still be scooping the stuff up from the floor.
10 / 10.
Posted by: Sly at October 8, 2006 01:09 PM
Would that former Kurzweil employee happen to have been Mike Brigida?
Posted by: Justin Dohrmann at October 9, 2006 11:49 AM
I think it would be great if there was a Widget that could stream the music and give me the same functionality that the in-browser player gives. Or a separate app that I can run on my computer so that I don't have to have the browser open to listen.
Posted by: Brian at October 9, 2006 01:55 PM
I was at the forum last week and was surprised with how balanced the technical questions were with some of the wonderful musical geekery behind the genome. I was skeptical that the discussion would actually raise a lot of new issues re: digital music, but it actually produced a lot of good questions (I've been blogging about some of them - see blog.ianwilsonmusic.com).
You're doing a fantastic job, Tim - hope you're hanging in there.
Posted by: Ian at October 10, 2006 11:58 AM
Pandora is amazing, I listen a lot and buy.
Keep it up.
I love the Blues.
Thanks,
Jane
Posted by: Jane at October 10, 2006 06:11 PM
Hi, I just wanna say THANKS!!! I'm from Chile and I think is amaizing what you do. You even have music from my country! (for me that was a big surprise).
:)
Posted by: Cata at October 11, 2006 10:43 PM
I don't know how you guys do it, but it just gets better the more I use it (since last spring, I think). Such a great product. I love you. There, I said it.
Posted by: Scott Salsman at October 12, 2006 08:58 AM
What I wouldn't give to hear a Podcast, or any sort of other recording, of that Berklee discussion.
Any chance Pandora could make THAT dream come true??
Posted by: Dixon at October 12, 2006 01:15 PM
I see that you have not planned to hit Minnesota. I think this is a mistake. You should hit Minneapolis at least. Not only do you have the huge University of Minnesota locate in N.E. Minneapolis, but located downtown Minneapolis is the Minneapolis College or MCTC. MCTC has a very diverse group of students who speak more than 100 languages alone. I think that you could really get a diverse group of opinions by visiting MCTC.
Posted by: Michelle at October 13, 2006 04:39 AM
I agree with Dixon in that you should consider Minnesota. I don't know how many fans you have up here in Minnesota to make a trip worthwhile - but I am certainly am one. There are also a lot of great local artists here...
I've told everyone about you guys! This is by far and away the coolest thing ever. To actually put science behind the music is genius! Then use it to create this amazing site for all to share! Kudos!!!
I really like the Quick Mix. Thanks!!!
Posted by: Leah at October 13, 2006 08:00 PM
Hey Man,
I just learned about Pandora recently and I'm absolutely amazed. I wish I could have learned about it sooner so that I could have met you when you came to my school. Berklee is a very interesting school isn't it? I've been going to Berklee for 7 semesters now and I also have a work study job with the Berklee online Music School. I recently interviewed my boss David Krusek for a class project and learned that he was a founder of a company called the digital Cowboys which was the internets' first, if not the first Online Music Downloading websites. After I picked his brain about his experience, I have been very interested in the subject and the buisness aspects of Music on the Internet. I'm finishing up my last year here and I'm considering moving back to my home town of San Francisco, if you come back to boston again in the near future, it would be cool to meet you or at least know where you would be speaking or or giving a clinic.
Maybe you could give a clinic at Berklee, if you ever wanted to?
Posted by: Victor Puentes at October 30, 2006 10:27 AM
I think it would great if you all had a service
in which bookmarked songs could be burned into
cds.
Posted by: Jacqui at October 31, 2006 02:33 PM
So, Tim,
I've been on Pandora for a few months now, and I gotta say, kudos on the music Genome Project! In the spirit of this project, I really think that you should add this Boston-local "ska" band I've been listening to-- they're called "Interrobang" and they have an EP circling around called "Live Dangerously". It's got a lot of punk influence, and their horns seem to be around mostly for show, but they sound like they're straight out of the early 90's ska trash! Give them a listen to, and see if maybe they could find their way onto the MGP.
Best,
Kate
Posted by: Kate at November 16, 2006 08:32 PM
Check out 3rd Left, from Plymouth, MA. They're a really great up and coming band, that's breaking out of the South Shore bar scene, opening up for State Radio in May, and definitely worth everyone's ears.
3rdleft.com is their website. Check 'em out. It would be great to see 'em get onto Pandora.
KG
Posted by: Kev at November 29, 2006 09:52 AM
Just to congratulate you guys for doing such a great job. Keep it up!
Posted by: fontadoni at November 30, 2006 09:43 PM
Aww, I wish I could've been there for one of those discussions, I bet it was a great time! I guess I just wanted to say thanks for what you guys are doing, I think its great and I'm looking forward to the Pandora community growing!!
Posted by: Zack at January 14, 2007 01:00 PM
I,ve never found A website featuring this type of input where you can actually feel apart of it, I hope you continue to move forward and i will always be doing what I,ve been doing and thats making my own music now and until you say we can,t!
Posted by: rudy at February 4, 2007 04:10 AM
Hello! I have been listening for only a couple hours now and I am amazed at how wonderful you are, you pick other music like you know me! But I need help in finding a song I know was on an album by REO Speedwagon titled: You can tune a piano but you can't tunafish. It has fantastic piano on it and I can't find it on Youtube or Limewire, I checked in your search in Pandora and came up with nothing. Can you help me hear that cut again? Please?--sincerely Gracie Javier
Posted by: gracie javier at April 13, 2007 11:09 AM
Oh man, what can I say... Pandora is great! I have been a listener for over a year and I really like the way it has evolved and how I am now able to listen to the genre of artists and songs I really enjoy listening to. No more interruptions of what I don't really like. This is great!
Posted by: April at August 15, 2007 10:34 AM
hola por favor no la quiten , miren pandora es una tremenda idea
es muy refrescante y a la ves nos entretiene de tantas cosas en muchos idiomas , so please dont take out this a great idea of the boston pandoras music box because is very refresshining for every one in boston please let this great box continue with this super music for every one .
thanks a lot
ariel cadena.
Posted by: Ariel cadena at August 15, 2007 02:56 PM
Can't believe I missed your recent visit to the Somerville Theatre near Cambridge Ma. I had been chatting with Dina about your visit but then I went to Las Vegas where my email was not working for some strange reason and I missed the confirmation of date and place. I'm so bummed !!!!
I'm sure it was a great visit even without me there but I wanted so to meet you all. I hope it will not be your last time coming to the Cambridge area.
As I told Dina when you come the next time I would love to have you all come to my cool Boutique near Harvard U., And help in any way needed. I have some (I think) good marketing ideas which I emailed Dina about and would love to furthure discuss with someone.
Anyway--Enough Rambling---Thanks Tim, again, for all the great music.
And Peace ------ Zelda Feinberg
Posted by: Zelda Feinberg at September 10, 2007 09:11 AM
I was turned on to this station by one of my coworkers.. I work nights, have access to a computer but not music.. I LOVE IT.. and I'm spreading the news, telling everyone how great you are.. THANK YOU!!!
Posted by: Nancy at September 25, 2007 03:53 AM
next time you're in boston, check out my friend's band, Strictly! For the Birds
Posted by: alexandra at November 6, 2007 08:02 PM
Hi
A bit late for the post, but better late... Brilliant!!!, Have 3 stations so farm Calexico, Tom Waits, Broken Social Scene,,,really like the photo of the red barn, nicely done..
All the best
Jim P
Posted by: Jim at April 20, 2008 09:08 AM