Blog: Pandora

When aliens land and demand to hear "intelligent punk rock" -- and, let's be honest, that day is coming soon -- you would be well-served to introduce them to Bad Religion. Arguments supporting this hypothesis: a) Singer/lyricist Greg Graffin teaches evolutionary biology at Cornell University b) Drummer Brooks Wackerman makes easy references to Bunsen burners c) Guitarist Brett Gurewitz founded Epitaph Records, and look at what Epitaph has done d) Guitarist Greg Hetson [...]

~ Those images above are from our new animated show, Music 101. This episode is all about rhythms, and looks at where rhymes fall in a four-beat pattern. Earlier episodes were about synthesizers and singing in harmony . But here is the new one , which is one part Sesame Street and one part Dance Fever , with a smidge of Beat Street peppered in for good measure. If you'd like to download a free MP4 of it, [...]

"There are heroes in the seaweed..." - Leonard Cohen One of the best things about being part of Pandora is knowing that we are, with the help of our listeners, tilling the musical soil, churning up music that for one reason or another may have gotten lost or buried at some point. I love the idea that we are all keeping so many songs in circulation, and in that spirit, I thought I'd post a few artists that might be new to some of you, that you can explore as new [...]

The Submarines write LOVE songs, but they aren't all sweetness and light. Sure, many of their songs are widescreen paeans to the power of romantic love to save the world. But their music has a political undercurrent to it. Take "You, Me and the Bourgeoisie," their single that has become nigh-on ubiquitous thanks to its placement in multiple Apple ads on television. It's really not JUST a love song. You'll see. " 1940 " " Thorny Thicket " " Submarine Symphonika " " [...]

You guys have a lot of questions for us, and here is Tim answering a few of those: WHY DO YOU CONSIDER PANDORA TO BE RADIO? CAN I LISTEN TO SONGS BY ONLY ONE ARTIST? WHAT CAN I DO IF I HEAR A SONG TOO OFTEN? If you have any questions that you'd like to see Tim answer, then flip on your webcam and record yourself asking the question. We would like to meet you, so please introduce yourself. Then, just send it on in and we'll do our best [...]

Wale has played shows with Jay-Z and Mark Ronson, and these days he is writing some great modern hip-hop. Here we see him performing with a TEN-PERSON LIVE BAND (!) at the Mezzanine in San Francisco. His debut album, Attention: Deficit , is set to come out this June. If you don't like profanity, you won't like these videos -- they get pretty raunchy and (ahem) blue, and are only for listeners over the age of 18. " W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E. " " The Artistic Integrity " [...]

Angelo Moore and Norwood Fisher have been making music together since they were 14 years old. They spoke with us about the Fishbone approach, and the ways in which these longtime collaborators have continued to re-invent their sound. In these four Pandora videos, we caught the band at a Halloween show in Santa Cruz, CA, and they blew the house apart as they always do. " Party At Ground Zero " " Freddie's Dead " " Everyday Sunshine " [...]

Two weeks ago we rather quietly rolled out our first BlackBerry applications and yesterday we completed the first phase of our rollout with the announcement of Pandora for BlackBerry App World . Pandora for BlackBerry runs on a wide variety of handsets and carriers. At the moment we support the Curve (including the new 8900), Bold, Pearl, and 8800 on AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. We're still working on the Storm -- the touchscreen UI presents a unique opportunity and we want to get the interactions just right. Stay tuned on that front. [...]

We've been quietly rolling out a number of enhancements to Pandora.com the last few weeks and I thought I'd tell you a bit about them. The biggest of the bunch is the launch of lyrics! This has been one of the most requested features for Pandora for as long as I can remember and the trick for us has always been to find a great provider of legal, fully licensed lyrics to share with you. Happy to say that we've found a great partner in Gracenote and last week we launched the first iteration of our [...]

For the latest podcast in our ongoing audio series, "The Musicology Show," we talk with two hip hop MCs and two beatmaking producers about the art of Sampling. The MCs are Macsen Apollo and Anderson Ray from V.E.R.A. Clique , and the producers are Dan Craig and Johnny Igaz. Craig is a software-sampling maven who imports audio directly from old LPs; Igaz uses a hardware sampler for his production work with Ill Mondo. All four bring interesting perspectives to the controversial and rich subject of sample-based music, and Craig breaks apart one [...]

This week's videos are of three gents based in Nashville -- or Nashvegas, as some call that city -- who infuse their songs with the wild and fullfisted piano style of Jerry Lee Lewis and Dr. John. There's a clear line between young groups like the Gabe Dixon Band and the blues and early rock n' roll masters who inspired them. In this set, they are performing songs from the appropriately titled Gabe Dixon Band album. This set was shot at the Pandora office in Oakland, right before the band crossed [...]

An admission of sorts... Many of Pandora's music analysts are jazz musicians. I'd even say "most." Many play jazz professionally on a regular basis, and most play jazz less regularly, but at home for the sheer joy of it. Playing jazz requires ear training and harmonic sensitivity, both of which are helpful when answering 400 to 700 questions about each new song in the Music Genome. This is one reason why I use the word "finally." We finally have some jazz in our video [...]

We receive your questions every day, and are happy to get more. Here, Tim answers a few of the q's we hear the most: WHY DID YOU MAKE THE MUSIC GENOME PROJECT? WHY AM I NOT HEARING THE EXACT SONG I REQUESTED? WHY DID YOU NAME IT PANDORA? Please write in any questions you'd like to hear answered... we look forward to seeing questions sent from your webcams too. <!-- --> [...]