www.pandora.com

http://www.bostonherald.com/business/technology/general/view.bg?articleid=1075879&srvc=rss

The listener’s access to music has been a form of great debate in the last decade. With Napster, the illegal downloading of music spread quickly and the media industry was dealt a hard blow. In the aftermath, many other programs arose and mimicked or expanded upon the new gateway to music. At Cornell, many students use Direct Connect to get their media files. This system allows people within the Cornell network to share a collection of their media library. Direct Connect, and programs similar to it, have pushed the boundaries of legally downloading music. An alternative to these questionable programs comes in the form of Pandora. Pandora is, in essence, an online radio but it does so much more than dispense preplanned music. When first arriving at the Pandora website, one is prompted to search for a song or artist that interest her. Pandora matches the search, and then has the user verify the correct song or band (there are many songs and bands with similar names). Once the details are correct, Pandora’s search system connects your music choice with a plethora of other songs that share similar attributes to the original selection. When listening to one of the selected songs, there are options to agree or disagree with its placement. This interaction with the system allows it to be updated through user feedback. The specialization that Pandora offers differentiates it from the radio and from other online music websites, and allows the user to come across new music that will interest her. There are two downsides to Pandora: it is only accessible online, and there is a limit to the number of songs the user can skip through. The people behind Pandora are working towards making it more accessible (making it “mobile”), so that problem could be fixed relatively soon. The other problem, the inability to skip over songs one dislikes, is a matter of legal complexities. Still, on the radio there is no ability to skip over songs so the ability to do so, although it is constricted, provides a better experience for the user. Pandora has a novel idea for dispensing music to the user and if the creators are able to make their product mobile and develop a broader user bas then they will definitely be a key part of music access in the future.

The foundation and spread of Pandora can be viewed in many different network settings. The primary network setting that comes to mind when thinking about Pandora is the technology network that assists the play list compilation. The nodes in this network are songs and the edges are the common attributes attached to the songs. These attributes are determined through the user interaction and the foundation set in place by the creators, which helps segue into the second network that Pandora has created: the social network. Users are themselves nodes, with common music interests connecting them acting as the edges. There is the opportunity to friend people who have these similar music interests, creating a network between users. In addition, since the users can give feedback to Pandora there is also a diverse network of users and Pandora employees together manipulating the song network. Pandora has also created links along with the songs that the user is currently listening to. This link (edge) connects the Pandora website (node) with either an iTunes or Amazon website (nodes). The inclusion of this accessory allows users to have direct access to buying the song that they are listening to. The Pandora website has created and expanded many networks within the music community. Doubtlessly, as Pandora grows so will its networks, creating benefits for both the users and the artists who are getting exposure.