Task #12 - Pandora.com

Likely, many of you have heard about Pandora and participated in the site as a user.  As a marketer, the site is a very good example of finding a target a audience through logical correlations and feedback.  The site has learned that if you appreciate a certain type of musical artist, there are other artists that will interest you ...and there are other people like you.  Advertiser have the opportunity to connect with that like minded group and offer solutions.  Hmm, one big fat target...ready, aim, fire (with content).

Do you used Pandora.com?  What do you like about it as a user? 

Comments

[Nicole Kirch]

I use a similar website to Pandora.com called Last.fm. I love having a radio that I can listen to with songs more songs than I can imagine and the choice of discovering new songs. Advertisers have an opportunity to create an image that goes with a specific music genre or movement. They can sell ideas and philosophies that go with their product and use the musicians as the vehicle. Non-Internet Radio stations have the problem of having to cater to a set group of people rather than attracting the desired audience.

[bmpnacek]

I like your thinking Nicole! I also use Last.fm and am very impressed. I will admit I've tried pandora before, however it wasn't the best experience even though both sites offer the same things. It's awesome to turn on your internet radio and be assailed by thousands of rock bands that blow my ears away with sweet melodies of screamin' guitars and head bangin' madness! Tight leather is back and it's back in FORCE! The car stereo just can't compete seeing how the music is at the DJ's behest. Many times DJ's get in a rut and forget who they're supposed to please, in the internet radio business it's not about the DJ...it's about YYYOOOOUUUUUUU, crank it to the left and right oh ya! Like the Nike site, personalization is awesome and the more you can personalize and cater to individual end users the better you are in the overall scheme of things. Go DJ turn it up some or wait, type it in, Last.FM!

[jljarman]

I really enjoy Pandora, and I have never used any of the other sites similar to it. I am anxious to explore the other sites as well. I have heard there are other sites that you can actually pick specific songs, whereas on Pandora you can only pick what type of artists or songs. Sometimes I want to listen to a certain song, but most of the time I enjoy just listening to whatever comes up. I would like a website that does both of these things.

[Gregory Franz]

I like the idea of Pandora but i am hardly on the site. I really like XM radio because i own a subscription and i enjoy listening to the different channels. For someone that just wants to listen for free Pandora is great idea. It would be interesting to see XM/Sirius advertise on pandora.

[Nick Vezzetti]

Easily one of the greatest websites in the world next to ESPN. I know many people who I have had the pleasure to teach them about the wonders that Pandora can bring you. Its not just about music you know and like but its about expanding your personal knowledge of music and getting past what’s mainstream. I have a friend that consistently goes over his allotted amount of hours he can listen to Pandora a month, so then Pandora is forced to kick him off. The way that Pandora makes money is through advertisements and subscribers that pay for the site and can listen to the site nonstop without commercials. This site is great and always expanding to apps on cell phones and tv’s. Luckily I have an iphone so I never have to hear Mitch Lake or the Greg Kinn show again.

[Caitlin Hartley]

I absolutely love Pandora. One of my friends told me about it last year and I have used it ever since. I don't download music so it is nice to be able to listen to music still while I'm on my computer. I also like how it is continuous. The only thing I wish it could do (and maybe it can I just have never done it) is to play a continuous mix of stations without me having to create a new station every time I want to hear a couple songs of a different genre. The commercials are a good idea for advertising although I usually block them out I'm sure many actually listen.

[Travis King]

Pandora is one of the best internet radio sites around. Not only is it free but it also plays bands and song that are similar to the ones the listener likes. While listening to music, advertisements are on the side of the playlist. This is a great way for advertisers to hone in on a specific target audience. As Pandora grows the profits from the advertisements will grow because the more users the more potential buyers for the advertisers to target.

[Nick Laurila]

Nick Laurila likes this.

[Nick Laurila]

Pandora is great I listened to it while I do almost every task when im by a computer and don’t have my iTunes available. I really enjoy how I can create my own stations and listen to what I want. Some of the suggestions I find questionable but if I don’t like them I just hit the next button. Problem solved. I think that Pandora is the best website for listening to music. I think the advertisements are tailored to the music. I’ve noticed that the ads are different between my Waylon Jennings station and my O.A.R. station.

[kylie stimac]

I most def use pandora, I don't see why people wouldnt. It's free and totally worth it, I hate choosing music to listen to, so all I have to do is type in one band I like and it chooses other songs and bands to play its great. The Internet radio differs from my car radio because living in Houghton, we have very crappy stations, they repeat the same old songs over and over and we dont get much variety. So pandora gives me the option to pick what genre I'm in the mood for.

[kylie stimac]

I most def use Pandora, I don’t see why people wouldn’t. It’s free and totally worth it, I hate choosing music to listen to, so all I have to do is type in one band I like and it chooses other songs and bands to play its great. The internet radio differs from my car radio because living in Houghton, we have very crappy stations, they repeat the same old songs over and over and we don’t get much variety. So Pandora gives me the option to pick what genre I'm in the mood for.

[Shawn Doll]

I've been using Pandora for awhile. I like how the bring different music to your attention that is similar to what you listen to. The ads aren't bad, it's worth a few here and there just so you can get free tunes out of the deal. A similar site would be www.grooveshark.com This site lets you make playlists of pretty much every song known to man completely free. Pandora gets my approval.

[Kerry Hanrahan]

I have previously used the site when I was working on homework. I like that you can personalize the music and if you don’t like a song it will take it away. It is good for people that like only certain music and want to hear it. If you like only certain bands or songs you might end up listening to something you don’t like. It is free so there is advertising, but overall a good design and easy to use. Internet radio seems to be more current and less littered with talk. Most people want to hear music not people babble on and this allows for that.

[Bsjones]

Pandora is a great online tool that I use very frequently. The advertising system seems to coordinate with the choice of music which works for the most part. Having only one ad every so often over the audio and the side ad changing only with interface interaction keeps the visibility low enough not be annoying but you are still exposed to different types of ads.

[Robert Zychowski]

Pandora provides its listeners with free music that tailored to the user’s preference. Unlike normal radio, Pandora allows you to choose what style of songs you want to hear, what songs you want to hear, and what songs you don’t want to hear. Another feature that differentiates Pandora from standard radio is the limited amount of advertisement which allures a lot of users. A feature that is common for Pandora is an advertiser having its own station which features music that resembles the image of the product they are selling.

[Lindsay Hamel]

When I’m on Pandora, the advertisements in between songs actually annoy me. I don’t want to hear commercials, I want to hear music. I’ve also noticed that no matter what station I listen to, the advertisements don’t really target a certain audience. They are mostly irrelevant to my interests. I like Pandora because I get to choose the music I listen to, unlike turning on the radio and having to suffer through listening to “I Gotta Feeling” for about the 432,643 time. It lets you be in control and customize your stations to your liking. The site also allows you to like/disklike songs to ensure you are satisfied to what you’re hearing.

[Bawherea]

Pandora is amazing, but the ads between songs can be annoying if you do not have the proper adblocker in place. Thankfully I am able to block the five visual ads on the playing screen and I also block ads between songs. I like to use Pandora in a background tab while I am browsing, playing games or doing homework. I use it much like a radio, which makes sense since it is called internet radio. I especially like how I can make my own stations to play certain genres or artists. Pandora makes finding new musicians and bands that I did not know about very easy, as long as they fit within the specifications I have laid out for Pandora to use when suggesting new artists for a station. Unfortunately free users are limited to only 40 hours of radio per month per account, but this is easy to circumvent since you can share stations with other users and all of us have multiple email addresses! The only competition I feel Pandora has is Last.fm and I feel that it is less user-friendly than Pandora, even though Last.fm offers far more media and better community options. It is Pandora's simplicity that might just cause it to prevail.

[Michael Marcotte]

I use Pandora a lot when I'm working on things in the lab. Pandora is awesome because it almost always plays music that you want to hear. You can select an artist that you'd like to hear, and it'll play that artist and more just like it. It's a no-brainer when choosing between Pandora or the normal radio. Rarely do I ever find myself listening to the actual radio (especially the stations up here, cough garbage cough) because I always have to change the station. I don't want to hear half of the stuff on there. And when they aren't playing bad music they're playing advertisements. That's what makes Pandora so useful. The music you want to hear, very little advertising.

[Carl Asiala]

Pandora.com is an internet radio site that offers streaming of music. The free version of the site has advertisements, and you have a limit to how many songs you can skip. The paid version has unlimited skips and no ads.
The benefit of Pandora is that it allows people to discover music that they did not know about, and allows them to listen to music for free.
Internet radio differs from traditional car radio in that you can fine-tune what you listen to. You can ban certain songs and make it so that other songs play more frequently.
Pandora makes a profit by having advertisers advertise on it, and having a paid version of the site.

[Hat]

The idea of Pandora Radio is beneficial in the sense that you can pick a select genre, or even a certain method in how a song goes, and with that you can go ahead and explore other artists, and as a result it can not only open your mind to other bands, but it can convince you to invest in their albums, potentially generating more profit for the music industry in question. Certainly a good find.

[Smandert]

I have also been listening to Pandora for a while when I am cleaning, working on homework, or just waiting until my next class. Pandora is different than other types of radio because of the personalization aspect it offers. Based upon the type of the music someone is in the mood to listen to, Pandora offers the ability to create multiple channels all under one account. A user can like, dislike, or choose to discontinue a type of music and Pandora continues to generate music based upon those preferences. This is really nice because it provides the user the option to customize the types of music they can listen to.
Car radio takes call-in requests and the option to change channels when the music isn’t suiting the preferences of the listener. If a listener does not enjoy one genre or really enjoys another genre- it doesn’t matter when it comes to car radio. Internet radio is very customizable and there are many options available for different types of listeners.
Internet Radio Stations make money by offering enhanced memberships for a monthly fee that do not include any advertisements or listening minutes limits. They also make money by allowing advertisers to make paid announcements occasionally to the listeners.