WEBVTT - Pandora Radio and the Music Genome Project 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:17.840 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:20.520 and welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poulett, 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:22.560 and I am the tech editor here at how stuff 0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:25.320 works dot Com. Sitting across from me, as he always does, 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:30.600 is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, all right, Well, 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:32.879 why don't we just go ahead, get the formalities out 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:34.560 of the way and start this off with a little 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:41.479 listener mail. This listener mail comes from Justin. He says, Hi, guys, 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:44.320 I'm fourteen and love the show. Don't worry, I'm making 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:46.839 sure this isn't long like some of your others. So 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:49.720 how does Pandora Internet radio work like with the amount 0:00:49.760 --> 0:00:53.840 of skips and stuff? Thanks for the show, it's awesome, Justin, Well, 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:56.120 thank you, Justin. We decided we're going to talk about 0:00:56.160 --> 0:01:00.000 Pandora Radio and the underlying structure behind it, the Music 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:04.160 Genome Project, because it's pretty cool. Yeah, the Music Genome 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:07.320 Project is pretty key to this whole thing. Um. Because 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:09.559 there are a number of different kinds of internet radio 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:12.240 stations out there. Pandora is just one of them. Uh, 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:15.400 some of the other's famous ones that people are probably 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:19.440 pretty familiar with. Our last dot FM or group, shark 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:24.640 Um Radio one Lama maybe that one is not familiar 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:28.600 to me, Fine Tune, and of course Spotify, which we 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:31.120 have yet to see in the United States. And then 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:34.760 there's some others that are not internet radio stations but 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:38.160 also will deliver music to you via the web, things 0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:42.120 like La La oh wait, that's gone well La La 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:45.000 went bye bye and went to La La Land. I 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:46.959 went to apple Land is what I went to. Well, 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:50.720 that's true at any rate, So internet radio. The interesting 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:54.280 thing about Pandora is that it kind of sprung out 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:56.920 of the idea of how do you find new music 0:01:57.400 --> 0:01:59.840 that you're going to like? You know, not just not 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:03.040 just finding new music, because that's that in itself is 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:06.320 not necessarily that hard, but finding new music that kind 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:08.960 of appeals to you based upon what you already like. 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:10.840 That can be kind of a challenge. I mean, you 0:02:10.840 --> 0:02:13.320 walk into a music store and you look at the 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:17.440 categories and they're pretty broad, right, like rock or rap 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:21.239 or blues or whatever. That's These genres are huge, I mean, 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:24.079 they're there are sub genres in every single one of these. Yes, 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:27.440 And just because you happen to like someone who has 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:29.919 a great record in one genre doesn't mean that you're 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:32.440 going to pick up any other record in that genre 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:36.720 and be equally as enamored. So Pandora Radio kind of 0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:39.480 grew out of this idea of the Music Genome Project, 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:44.440 which uh uh is fascinating to me. The idea is 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:50.280 that analysts break down a song by describing it through 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:56.040 one of several hundred musical attributes, and the collection of 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:58.920 attributes are kind of what give the song it's character, 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:02.959 and that by breaking down other songs and getting their attributes, 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:05.160 you can compare one against the other and see how 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:08.160 similar they are, Like how many of the qualities does 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:11.680 one song share with another? And if there are several 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:15.160 qualities that are shared, you could leap to the conclusion 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:17.200 that hey, you know, if you really like, if you 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:20.200 really dig this one song, then this other song that's 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:22.720 kind of similar to it, you'll probably also like. There's 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:25.760 a good chance. So uh, that's kind of how Pandora 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:29.200 that's the basis of Pandora Radio. Yeah, I can actually 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:32.480 get pretty messy these uh. The songs are are picked 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:37.160 apart by essentially by hand. Um, so of course there 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:40.520 is a human being sitting somewhere in a room full 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:43.360 of little bits of music all over the floor, or 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:47.680 maybe not now. Um. It does take human beings, however, 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:50.920 to uh who are working at Pandora to listen to 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:54.240 a song and and basically they're they're dissecting it. They're 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:58.200 listening to it for different things, UM, different styles of music. 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:02.640 They're listening for the different instrumentation. Perhaps you like piano jazz, 0:04:03.240 --> 0:04:07.440 but you you can't stand saxophones, so I mean you can. 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:13.040 They're identifying traits like that, Um, different kinds of of singing, vocalization, 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:17.240 maybe all instrumentals. These are all kinds of of attributes 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:19.760 or uh facets as they like to describe them in 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:23.440 library school, Um, of a song that they'll use to 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:29.040 record and Um. Once you get started with Pandora, simply 0:04:29.080 --> 0:04:33.320 by putting in, say a favorite artist or a favorite song. UM, 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:36.040 that's really when the music genome project kicks in, because 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:39.440 you know, it's going to try to play another song 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:44.440 in your station based on the traits that are available 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:46.960 for that particular song or that particular artist that you 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:49.840 put in. Sure. Yeah, So for example, if I wanted 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:54.080 to put in um uh say the Ramones, and I did, uh, 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:56.040 I want to be sedated? Okay, because you know I'm 0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:58.520 a punk rock fan. Yes you are, so if I 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:02.600 put that in, it would the Pandora Radio would would 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:06.880 consult the Genome project essentially the database, and say, all right, well, 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:09.240 this guy wants he likes I want to be sedated. 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:12.160 What qualities does that song have? You know, what kind 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:14.680 of rhythm does it follow? Is it a male vocalist 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:16.840 or a female vocalist? Of course in this case it's 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:19.719 a male vocalist. Um is it a band? Is it? 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:22.640 Is it acoustic? Is it rock? It looks at all 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:24.599 these different qualities and then says, all right, well, what 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:27.400 else is in the library that kind of has this 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:30.960 similar uh structure? And it might pull something from the 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:33.520 clash and then play the clash and say, hey, do 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:36.479 you like this? And then it's your choice to either 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:38.880 give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down or 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:40.360 you know, you don't have to do anything at all 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:42.760 if you don't want to. If you do a thumbs up, generally, 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:44.880 what that's telling Pandora is that not only do you 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:47.200 like the song, but it will start to play that 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:50.359 heavier in rotations in the future. Now. Granted, when you 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:52.640 first get started, it's not going to do that that 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:56.239 often because you haven't built up your own station yet. 0:05:56.520 --> 0:06:00.240 But over time, as you thumb up or thumbdown songs, UH, 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:03.920 certain songs will get played more often than others. Now, 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:07.760 one of the nice things about Pandora is that you're 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:11.720 not limited to a particular station. So, say you have 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:14.280 a remoone station, but you say, you know what today, 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:17.720 I'm I really want to you know, I'm thinking back 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:19.280 to the days when I was in high school band. 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:21.320 I really want to listen to something symphonic. Well, you can. 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:25.400 You can put in a favorite UH composer, say Aaron Copeland, 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:28.160 or maybe you want to listen to music from the 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:30.440 romantic period, you can put that in. You don't have 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:32.080 to put your you don't have to throw away what 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:34.440 you've done on your remone station. You can actually create 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:37.200 up to a hundred stations of your own. So if 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:40.280 you have your you know, rainy day station for a 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:43.279 mood music while you're working, or you really want something 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:47.880 UH like industrial or hip hop, you can go ahead 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:49.719 and switch from one to the other. And if you 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:51.800 really want to you can mix some of them together 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:54.400 in their quick Mix feature, which is a fairly new 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:57.120 feature on the site. Has been around for probably more 0:06:57.160 --> 0:06:58.840 than a year now now that I think about it, 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:01.039 um but it was there when it started. And it's 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:04.560 an opportunity to mash up different stations, so you can 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:08.400 uh combine different different stations that you've already set up 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:10.600 and it will give you a mix. So you really 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:13.320 have a lot of options as far as customizing, and 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:15.080 it's not it's going to keep in mind what your 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:19.120 preferences are for a particular station, So you're starting with 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:21.440 a blank slate each time. Yeah, but you have the 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:23.680 opportunity to customize and and if you want to, you 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:26.720 can change uh your station around too, because you can 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:28.720 edit the page for that station and if you say, 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:32.440 come a song down that you didn't mean to, you 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:35.440 can go, oh geez and go back to edit your page. 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:37.440 You have to say, oh gees. By the way, that's 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:43.880 that's part of you wouldn't have thought. So yeah, you know, 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:47.200 we're just going to go ahead and do that email us, 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:48.960 but no, you can go back and edit it and say, 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:51.080 you know, and check this one, I actually like this 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:54.040 and um, so it's pretty nice that you can you 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:55.920 can customize this and you don't have This is what 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:59.080 sets Pandora apart from a lot of the other um 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:02.480 Internet ready stations is you have this customized ability to 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:07.440 really make the station yours. Yeah, and and beyond that, 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:09.120 just to kind of build on what you were saying, 0:08:09.120 --> 0:08:11.440 they're put uh, it has a couple of other options 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:13.400 that are kind of cool to One of which is 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:16.600 that let's say that you have maybe a dozen radio 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:19.760 stations that you've created, and you've got them in different 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:23.400 genres or just uh, you know, kind of for different moods, 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:26.480 and say that you have one station open and a 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:29.640 song starts playing, and you think, I like this song, 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:32.320 but it doesn't really belong in the station. It really 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:35.400 could go in my other station, like you know, station 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:38.280 number three. You can actually go through the menu system 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:43.360 and port that song over into your other station. So 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:46.240 that way, what it does is it automatically gives that 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:49.560 song that thumbs down for the station it's currently playing in, 0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:52.400 so it won't play it again there, but it will 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:57.640 play in your in whatever station you designated as the recipient, 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:00.160 which is really neat because I mean, I have that 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:02.480 happen all the time. I've one of the stations I 0:09:02.520 --> 0:09:08.640 have is for musicals, uh hardcore punk rock rock. Okay, 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:12.240 I like musicals actually, Frankly, he has stations for both. 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:14.680 I'm pretty sure I do have stations for both. I 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:17.280 have a station called I Want to be Sedated. I 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:20.160 have a station called Broadway. I have a station called 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:27.679 Avenue Que, which is slowly, slowly taking over Broadway. I could, 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:31.120 I could, but at any rate, sometimes the Broadway thing, like, 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:34.160 I haven't told Pandora specifically or there's no you know, 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:36.120 I haven't gone through the genre system, which you can 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:38.400 also do. They have a thing where you can select 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:41.440 music by genre if you want to just leave it 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:46.120 more as a more broad uh spectrum. But I haven't 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:48.280 told Pandora of course that, you know, I just want 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:51.560 music that it's from musicals, so occasionally. You know, there 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:53.600 are a lot of different styles of musicals out there, right, 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:56.280 I mean, some of them are, you know, the kind 0:09:56.280 --> 0:09:59.920 of big melodramatic stuff like the Android Weber stuff with 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:01.520 Fantom of the Opera and all that kind of thing, 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:04.400 and then some of them are more rock and roll based. 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:06.760 I mean, even sticking with Andrew laid whatever you go 0:10:06.800 --> 0:10:10.840 with Jesus Christ Superstar and you've got like that seventies rock. Well, 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:13.640 occasionally a seventies rock song will come in because it's 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:16.600 very similar to music that's in that play. But I 0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:19.920 don't want it there because that's my musical station. This 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:21.760 is not a musical song. It blongs somewhere else, So 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:23.400 I'll just move it over to one of the stations 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:25.400 it does belong in, or if I hate the song, 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:29.480 I'll just give it the thumbs down. Now, we were 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:33.680 asked specifically about skipping songs and thumbs down songs and 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:36.160 things like that, and why you're limited and what's the 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:39.240 deal behind that. I kind of wanted to talk about 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:44.760 one other thing first, just and and it's related. It's transitions, um, 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:48.240 because that that is the thing I mean. Um. Actually, 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:50.080 when I was doing a little extra research, of course, 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:52.400 I've been using Pandora for years. I'm pretty familiar with it, 0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:54.600 but I was trying to look for the answers to 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:57.040 specific questions. And one of the things I kept seeing 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:03.640 seeing on on the Pandora blow Dog was people asking why, uh, 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:06.600 someone might upgrade. There's a paid version of Pandora called 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:08.439 Pandora One which we could talk about in a minute. 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:10.920 But people keep its thirty six dollars a year, and 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:13.600 people say, why I want to pay thirty six dollars 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:16.120 a year? You know that's ridiculous. Well, the thing is, 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:19.679 this music has to be licensed, um, because the artists 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:24.200 are supposedly getting paid for songs that are getting played 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:26.440 on internet radio stations as well as satellite radio as 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:30.199 well as terrestrial radio. Um. The internet radio in particular 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:34.000 has been an issue, right, internet radio royalties. It's a 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:38.080 performance piece. I mean, you are whereas the band itself 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:42.560 is not performing the song, your service is performing the 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:45.080 song in lieu of the band, and and therefore the 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:48.080 band should be able to be compensated for that performance. Right. 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:49.600 And it's not just the band, it's also the music 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:51.760 label all that kind of stuff too. Studio write, the 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:55.880 writers and the performers, and uh, as somebody registered with 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:58.920 one of the music performance services, you know, I'm happy 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:02.840 to see that they're you know, paying attention to that. However, 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:05.719 they have to license this stuff, and as part of 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:10.160 their license there are certain terms and conditions, uh that 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:13.040 they have to meet. One of those big ones is 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:16.600 that you are not allowed to play a song on demand, Like, 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:19.040 you can't just pick a song and say I want 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:22.200 to hear this right now on Pandora, and that's what 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:24.360 I want to hear, and that's all that I'm interested in. 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:27.959 Pandora's not a play for on demand service like that, 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:31.600 So you couldn't say I want to hear meat loafs. 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:33.480 I will do anything for love, but I won't do 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:35.839 that because I've got twenty seven minutes to kill and 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:38.600 I'd really like to hear some melodramatic music. Um. I mean, 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:40.840 you could say it, but it's not gonna happen because 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:44.679 Pandora doesn't work that way. Uh. And you also can't 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:47.760 rewind and listen to something that you just listen to. Uh. 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:50.800 That that's also part of the part of the agreement 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:55.640 with You can pause it, you just can't rewind. Um. 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:58.560 I mean, now, if you did accidentally thumbs down a song, 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:00.679 you can go back and give the thumbs up, but 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:03.040 it's not gonna play it again. It's just gonna switch 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:05.720 it in the database so that so that it will 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:10.559 eventually play it further down. But um, yeah, these are 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:14.120 terms that Pandora had to agree to in order to 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:16.520 get a deal to be able to to present this 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:20.200 music in the first place. And for a while things 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:22.920 were actually looking pretty grim for Pandora and other internet 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:28.439 radio stations because they were being held to pretty extreme 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:32.160 um conditions as far as you know how much money 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:35.760 they had to pay uh to be able to play music. 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:37.320 For a while, it looked like it was going to 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:42.000 be a per performance, per person model, which means that 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:45.640 every time someone listens to a certain song on Pandora, 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:47.920 Pandora would have to pay for that. Now it's more 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:52.439 of a kind of more like a very broad spectrum 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:55.920 where you're you're paying a lump sum in order to 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:58.480 have the right to play certain kinds of music. So 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:00.880 it's no longer every single time I'm the song place 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:03.520 you pay up. It's you pay this lump sum to 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:06.880 the industry and then you're allowed to play the music. Yes, 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:09.360 which is great because if it had been the other way, 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:13.760 Pandora might not even be around anymore currently as far 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:19.040 as the royalties situation goes, um, you can be a 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:22.480 Pandora account holder and listen for up to forty hours 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:25.440 a month for free, right um. If you go over that, 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:28.480 then they'll charge you a month if you want to 0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:29.720 and for the rest of the month if you want 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:32.520 to keep listening. UM, or you can pay for Pandora one, 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:34.320 which is the service I was telling you about a 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:37.960 moment ago um which uh it's thirty six dollars a year. 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:40.640 Gives you also some other perks. Uh. You don't see 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:43.520 any ads on the page anymore. Um. Also you get 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:46.160 a higher quality of audio. The normal bit rate I 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:50.320 believe is kvps and um that goes up to one 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:54.320 for for the higher quality, and you get um. You 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:56.760 know that you don't have to to deal with so 0:14:56.800 --> 0:15:00.400 many Hey what do you do? And are you still listening? Um? 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:03.520 Hey excuse me little alerts? Yeah, where just the music 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:05.240 just suddenly stops and then you have to go over 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:08.840 and actively click on something so that Pandora will keep playing. Well, 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:11.400 they don't want to be paying royalties for songs if 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:13.800 no one is. Actually are they still doing that? Yes, 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:15.720 they are still doing I wasn't sure I have that 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:17.600 I have that thing going on. I haven't had I 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:20.600 haven't had Pandora play for that long a time, and 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:22.720 so such a long time that I haven't and I 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:25.880 haven't noticed it recently. And I'll listen to Pandora, but 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:30.040 I usually end up listening, you know, in half hour stints, 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:34.200 so I don't tend to encounter that very much. Well. Um, 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:37.320 so as far as the skipping goes, you can skip 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:40.080 up to I believe ten times an hour. No, six 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:43.520 six skips per hour, twelve per day if you're a 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:46.480 free user. If you if you're not in a particular station, 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:50.720 now yes, uh, twelve per day, no across all stations. 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:53.280 If you're a free list, if you're if you have 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:56.160 the free account. Um, yeah, because I actually went to 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:58.080 the fact to look this up. If you're if you 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:00.840 have a free Pandora account, you are limited to six 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:04.000 skips per hour per station, so that that might be 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:06.680 what you're thinking of, that six per hour per station, 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:11.760 but total if you're a free user, now only partially wrong, right. 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:14.720 If you're a Pandora one user, so you're paying the 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:19.000 three six dollars a year, Uh, you don't have a 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:21.960 maximum number of skips that you per day. You can 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:23.920 skip as many times as you want, but you're still 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:27.280 limited to six per hour per station, So you can't. 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:31.080 You can't just keep on skipping songs, you know forever. 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:33.520 You you do run out? Now, if you have a 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:36.800 hundred stations, and you know, you know, if you make 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:39.640 a hundred of the same station, then you theoretically will 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:41.480 eventually hear the songs you want to hear just by 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:43.240 keep on skipping and then go to the next station 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:49.360 and continue skipping. So uh but yeah, again that's part 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:53.520 of the licensing agreement um with the music industry. I mean, 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:56.400 Pandora Radio has to play ball. If it doesn't, then 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:59.400 they don't have any content. And as for content, actually 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:02.000 I looked up again in their fact and it says 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:05.280 currently they have around three quarters of a million songs 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:08.280 in their database, so seven fifty thousand songs. And that's 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:11.040 of course across multiple genres. Oh and you know, we 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:14.119 were talking about the whole the different qualities that songs have. 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:16.560 I meant to mention this too. I thought it was 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:21.120 really interesting that they don't use the full set of 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:24.600 of of attributes for every single song, you know, they don't. 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:28.520 They don't break it down to four categories or whatever. Uh. 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:34.400 Certain genres have their own um attributes. So for example, 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:39.480 rap might have East Coast versus West Coast inspired rap. 0:17:40.240 --> 0:17:44.480 The rap songs tend to have more lyrically based criteria 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:47.520 than you would see in other songs, because rap is 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:52.920 very much focused on the lyrics. Yes, so depending upon 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:56.200 the genre that you're listening to, you'll have a different 0:17:56.200 --> 0:17:58.679 set of criteria that that song is going to be 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:01.600 uh classified us and then or you know that they 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:05.240 used to classify that song rather and uh so that 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:06.840 that's what they're looking at when they're going to be 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:11.040 pulling up the next one on the list. Uh. I 0:18:11.640 --> 0:18:13.960 I found Pandora to be pretty much the one of 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:16.919 the coolest sites on the net. I mean, it's one 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:20.439 of the ones that I tend to rely on whenever, 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:23.160 you know, especially if I'm working from home. I've got 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:26.840 Pandora on my this is like plug Orama, but I've 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:30.000 got to Pandora Radio on my Roku and so I'll 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:32.679 just switch it over to my Avenue Q station so 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:35.760 I can, you know, do jazz hands between writing articles. 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:43.840 This is almost almost not a lie. Um, So I 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:46.840 didn't need to know that. Um. Actually that brings up 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:51.040 a good point. One thing that's uh. One thing they're 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:54.520 playing ball especially has allowed Pandora to do is they've 0:18:54.560 --> 0:19:00.320 gotten themselves into a number of pretty cool partnerships. Um. 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:02.840 Not only with with Roku, but um, of course there 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:06.679 are applications for Android and the iPhone OS. I was 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:10.120 so happy when they finally got the Android app out there. 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:12.479 That the iPhone app had been out for several months 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:16.040 before it finally came to Android, but that I thought 0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:18.800 that was where I said, you know, these guys not 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:22.320 only get the music classification game, they get the app 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:24.760 game because they understand that this is where the futures 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:27.080 headed and they got on board as fast as they 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:29.760 possibly could, which I mean that that's shows a very 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:33.000 forward thinking company too. Yep, yep. And there you know, 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:35.400 it's not limited to uh to the mobile devices either. 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:39.040 They've got a lot of home based while Roku, but 0:19:39.040 --> 0:19:42.679 they've also got other home based appliances as well, some 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:45.639 of the internet radio tuners that are out there in 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:49.480 stereo systems um plus. I believe the new tvo UM 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:54.359 is going to have Pandora capability embedded into it. And 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:56.560 they you know, they've done a lot to to try 0:19:56.640 --> 0:19:59.080 to reach out to different kinds of outlets, so it's 0:19:59.080 --> 0:20:02.280 not just the desktop computer um where you're going to 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:04.520 see that, and I think they've been more successful at 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:06.680 that than a lot of the other Internet radio stations, 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:09.800 although um, there are others who have their own apps 0:20:09.960 --> 0:20:13.000 out and uh, you know, but they're they're not quite 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:17.560 as as adept at making those connections, those business connections released. 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:21.879 They may have gotten beaten to it if Pandora's gotten exclusive, 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:28.000 right And uh uh have you discovered any cool new 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:32.840 artists or people you were not familiar with through pandora UM? 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:36.080 In In some cases yes, especially as I started to 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:40.440 explore UM jazz because it's something I've gradually been getting 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:43.159 into over the past couple of years. And um, so 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:45.880 I started a couple of different jazz stations in UM 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:50.680 Symphonic Music Stations UM and gradually have made notes of 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:54.960 different composers and artists that that I like, um, you know, 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:57.560 over the past couple of years, just doing that because 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:00.760 I don't know about about you, But speaking for myself, 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:03.080 when I'm editing articles, I find it difficult to listen 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:06.240 to a lot of music with lyrics in it, although 0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:07.800 I can listen to music, so if I can listen 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:10.040 to instrumental stuff, UM, I sort of gave me an 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:13.560 opportunity to explore those genres and you know, every once, 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:16.119 but the problem is, uh, you can find out exactly 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:19.720 who it is, so uh, suddenly I'll have to stop 0:21:19.760 --> 0:21:22.600 what I'm doing and go, you know, bookmark the artist, 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:24.879 which is kind of cool. They've got you know, Facebook integration. 0:21:25.280 --> 0:21:28.960 You could share that with your your friends on Facebook. Um, 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:31.200