Pandora Moods

Project Status: Feature Request

Problem

Pandora is great, if you don't know what it is you should really go check it out. However; the problem I have noticed from users over time is that everyone seeds their individual stations with a specific song or artist. They end up with quite a few stations but as they listen to the stations over time, by use of the thumbs up and thumbs down buttons, the stations all start to blend together. The same songs will carry over and play in other stations.

The idea of stations then isn't that useful in the long run when a user wants to tune in for something and ends up hearing basically the same old stuff again no matter which station is selected at the time.

Solution

I think Pandora should learn the taste of the user over time as a whole, and not per station. Once Pandora begins to understand a user it can build a stream of music for the moment by allowing the user to choose a mood. Of course we can predict user moods based on things like if they are at work, the gym or hanging out on a Friday night. Moving from station selection to mood selection would be a pivotal change for Pandora and a step in the right direction I believe to keep them relevant and ahead of user needs in a market which now has many growing competitors.

Pandora Group Stations

Project Status: Feature Request

Problem

Listening to music at work is difficult because people have such different taste that playing music for everyone always leaves someone wishing it wasn't on at all. Everyone listening to individual stations requires earbuds and isolates workers. This isolation causes drops in productivity for the group and slows necessary communication needed for the team to excel.

Granted the types of work environments I am thinking of here are ones in which people are working together on tasks or in large groups. As far as your cubical workers, sure, keep your earbuds my friends.

This idea also applies to parties and groups of friends hanging out. Whether it's in your car or on the couch, catering music to the crowd takes a delicate touch and DJ like skills.

Solution

I think Pandora Internet Radio, which is great by the way and you should look into it if you haven't yet, should make group stations.

Currently you can make your own stations and even share them with other people, but what I am suggesting here is a station geared towards a group audience with group controls.

I want to be able to create a station and share it with some friends. From that point I want my friends to have the same interactive controls as I do over that station. Anyone could thumbs up or thumbs down a song.

You would want to be able to play the station at work and have users of this group mirror the feed controls to their own devices. Someone in the group really doesn't want to hear a song? No problem, let that person hit the skip button for the feed playing to the whole group.

Over time you should end up with a station that works for the group. Of course it's not going to always be everyone's favorite song, but a nice mix to make everyone happy.