A rts & E ntertainm ent Pandora provides limitless, international radio

Open forum for music lovers, makers creates new buzz

KATHERINE BRACHELLI ASST NEWS EDITOR KB727@CABRINI EDU

Imagine being able to get your hands on all the latest music that is coming out of clubs, studios and garages from all around the world for no cost. Pandora.com, created by the Music Genome Project, has assembled hundreds of musical attributes or “genes” to provide people all around the world with over 10,000 songs that consist of copyrighted songs by known artists and aspiring artists’music.

Kelsey Neil, a junior sociology major, said, “I like the idea that you can gain access to all the music that you love for free. It’s cool because you get to be your own DJ on Pandora.com by selecting your favorite artists and you get to hear new music, too.”

Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora.com, said that his goal with Pandora.com is to help individuals all around the world discover new music, as well as enjoy the music that they listen to everyday. Since Westergren’s passion is music, he wanted to establish a way to help other musicians gain their audience and get their music out for everyone to hear.

Pandora.com allows users to create their own radio station by just accessing the website, and dropping the name of their favorite artists or songs into the Music Genome Project. The Genome Project scans over almost a century of popular recordings, which are both new and old, to find songs that may be of interest according to the listener’s taste. Once the Music Genome Project starts it scans the entire world of music that was analyzed by a team of 30 musician analysts.

Also, Pandora.com allows users to create as many stations as they want. The stations can be refined to the users liking because it allows users to give feedback as to whether or not they like the selected song that was played.

Westergren said, “Music is a craft. You have to work hard at your craft whether it be practicing, writing or performing to master it.”

Not only does Pandora.com give users the opportunity to listen to music, but it also gives musicians the opportunity to submit their music to be heard everywhere. As stated on Pandora.com, “The Music Genome Project was founded by musicians and musiclovers. They believe in the value of music and have a profound respect for those who create it.”

Westergren said, “Absolutely no pre-requisites are required to submit your music, and it doesn’t matter how popular you are.”

Nicole Schelinsky, a sophomore pre-nursing major, said, “I like that pandora.com also allows me to not only listen to my favorite artists, but it helps me to discover new music.”

Pandora has also created a Squeezebox, which is a device that allows users to have Pandora on their stereo. The Squeezebox allows users to plug Pandora into their home network so they can listen to it anywhere.

Westergren said, “We hope to have every type of music available for our listeners. We are currently working on getting some Latin music.”

Schelinsky said, “It sounds neat. I am definitely going to look more into it.”

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