The Music Genome Project on Pandora

Pandora Internet Radio revolutionized streaming when it introduced the world to the Music Genome Project in 1999.

This tool is basically an algorithm designed to classify 450 different attributes for individual songs and using your input of Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down can create an endless stream of almost exactly what you want to hear. It's even been known to show you music that you didn't even know about but, you love it!

Sure, it's not perfect. I've spent plenty of time hitting Thumbs Down on some stations wondering, “Do you even know me, Pandora?”. Those skips take a toll, too. Unless you have an unlimited account, you can only skip a few songs until you just have to suck it up or change the station.

For all of it's flaws though, it's still one of the greatest apps to have on any device. It has even been developing new features such as, earning skips and free unlimited hours for participating in advertisements, listening to the exact song you want to hear in exchange for more ad participation and now, there's even podcasts.

Thanks to Pandora, there’s hundreds of songs in my Spotify library that I listen to on a regular basis, many of which, I would never have listened to before this app and the Music Genome Project.

Music Genome Project on Wikipedia

Music Genome Project on Pandora

This app and it's algorithm are responsible for nearly this entire Custom Playists project and even a good part of the Music Theory Blog is inspired by exploring new sounds on Pandora.

So, when you listen to my Custom Playlists and read my Music Theory posts, give a bit of appreciation to the Music Genome Project and get out there and make some of your own research with this algorithm and see if you don't discover something new.

#84Plays\ Custom Playlists

Cheers,

Josh\ #84plays