Some questions trouble me on a very fundamental level.  When someone posits that humans might be the only highly advanced life forms in the universe, I think immediately of “The Hills” and family-friendly improvisational comedy performances and I curse God for playing such a cruel, cruel joke on creation.  The same is true of the Internet.  In such a boundless space as the world wide web, to be a bastion of quality carries with it a terrific burden.  The fate of the entire world could very well rest on my shoulders, being as I am a member of the startlingly tiny web-accessible minority capable of forming a coherent sentence.  That is why Pandora Radio means so much to me.  I have been gifted with one more ally in the fight for brilliance on the Internet.

Pandora’s brilliance lies in its simplicity.  Created by Will Glaser, John Kraft, and Tim Westergren, Pandora asks you for songs or artists you like, then takes that information and kicks back to you a feed of hundreds of songs it deems that you might also enjoy.  The Music Genome Project, which created the algorithms that drive Pandora’s suggestions, was concocted by Glaser, Kraft, and Westergren in 2000.  The dynamic trio compiled a list of over 400 attributes that could be used to describe any given song, and then they and a group of musical technicians began cataloguing the attributes songs one by one — a process which takes between 20 and 30 minutes per song. So far, Pandora’s music library consists of over 500,000 songs, with about 15,000 more being added every month.  Best of all, Pandora is completely free to use.

The RIAA and assorted other rich folks, who are renowned for their party poopery, prevent Pandora from allowing the user to rewind or replay songs, or to play a particular song on demand.  That discovery filled me with rage when first I encountered it, but I had only half-drawn my sword when my computer, in a brilliant gamble to save itself from certain death, started playing some other song I’d never heard before.  Normally this wouldn’t give me any reason for pause, and I would have hacked the damned machine to pieces.  The abnormality of it was how great the song was.  And the one that followed it.  It was song after song I’d never heard by artist after artist I’d never heard of.  Sheer bliss!  Never again would I be stuck expanding my musical repertoire by asking friends about songs I heard them play in their car.  In the age of Pandora, we’re all cutting edge.  This, I think, is exemplary of a greater shift that is beginning to manifest in the digital realm. Pandora does not do what most musical resources in the internet have always done:  give you access to the music you like.  Pandora doesn’t let you pick the songs you like.  Like a brooding mother shoving carrots down your gullet, Pandora will give you something else, something different, something good for you, and by Jove,  you’ll learn to like it!  Pandora is way better than carrots, though.  It’s more like being force-fed a magical ice cream that won’t give you brain freeze or a spike in blood sugar.  In short, Pandora helps us open our ears, and by extension our minds, to new and exciting things.  My greatest hope is that someone will find a way to expand that philosophy to more and more elements of culture and society.  There is never any harm in expanding our boundaries, particularly when it is as painless as this.

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