 RAIN 10/19: Pandora tries to "ignore the crowd" in boiling down what its listeners really like ·Oct 19, 10:27 AM NYT MAGAZINE: CAN SOCIAL FACTORS BE SEPARATED FROM MUSIC, AS PANDORA IS DOING?As many readers may know, Pandora’s personalized radio stations are created using The Music Genome Project, a data-collection process The New York Times calls an “off-kilter novelty.” In the Times’ Sunday magazine, the back-end of Pandora’s music recommendation streams is thoroughly explored. Columnist Rob Walker speaks to users — both satisfied and disgruntled — discusses Pandora’s history, and the way in which they sort the hundreds of thousands of songs in their databases.
Walker is specifically interested in the effect’s of Pandora’s music-only approach in their recommendations. That is, how “Pandora’s approach more or less ignores the crowd.” STUDY: NET RADIO PLAYS 32 TIMES MORE UNIQUE ARISTS THAN BROADCASTAccording to data from radio monitor streamSerf, Internet radio played 32 times more unique artists compared to broadcast radio in September. Broadcast radio played 25,399 unique artists last month, compared to Internet radio’s total of 829,971 artists. “It is stunning to learn that Internet radio’s list of unique artists is greater than broadcast radio’s by 3600%,” writes Jennifer Lane at her Audio4Cast blog (here). “Internet radio gives voice to the long tail of music, providing entry for many musicians that have never had a platform before.”
RBR: RADIO MARKETERS POSITIVE ABOUT NET RADIO IN 2010RBR spoke to a handful of radio marketers about prospects in 2010, including the development of streaming radio. “Much stronger than 2009,” said one marketer. “Definitely on the rise with advertisers who are familiar with the medium,” said another. The Richards Group’s Director of National Broadcast, Ira Berger, wasn’t sold though: “Until it gets its act together (it is currently the Wild West in digital-land) its impact will minimal.” Find RBR’s full interviews here.MYSPACE, TO KEEP ITS MOJO, SHIFTS FOCUS TO ENTERTAINMENTMySpace, losing users (and ad dollars) to other “cooler” social networking sites like Facebook, has assembled a new executive team to focus on entertainment content. The Wall Street Journal reports MySpace will aim to be an online “hangout” spot, where users can share and connect with music, videos and games.
“As an entertainment site, MySpace would compete for ad dollars with a broader group of Web sites,” the Journal reports (here), including Hulu, AOL and Pandora. MySpace’s new chief revenue officer and former MTV executive Nada Stirratt will spearhead the effort. share: del.icio.us.  Reddit  Digg  Yahoo  Wink  Windows  Google  Newsvine 
CommentCommenting is closed for this article.  Other stories RAIN has upgraded (and moved)! RAIN 9/13: RAIN Summit Chicago takes place today! RAIN 9/12: First Summit in RAIN's hometown takes place tomorrow RAIN 9/9: Summer holidays, "doldrums" impact July Webcast Metrics, but audience up over last year RAIN 9/8: Clear Channel launches new customizable iHeartRadio beta; RAIN goes hands-on RAIN 9/7: Meet more speakers you'll hear at RAIN Summit Chicago in less than a week RAIN 9/6: Clear Channel taps The Echo Nest to take on Pandora RAIN 9/2: RAIN reviews Spotify's radio-like product Artist Radio RAIN 9/1: UK online radio aggregator Radioplayer campaigns b'dcasters to create "all radio" ratings RAIN 8/31: Execs from Merlin, Triton Digital, jacAPPS and more to appear at RAIN Summit Chicago |
This mindset leaves out “traditional gatekeepers,” like music critics, friends, and record labels. “The idea is to figure out what you like, not what a market might like,” Walker continues. “Is it really possible to separate musical taste from such social factors, online or off, and make it purely about the raw stuff of the music itself?” Find out what answers Walker comes across 
