Pandora's Potential with Advertising

I'm sure that when I say the word "iPod" you can immediately imagine the images from the ads. All of those happy silhouettes dancing around to the music... How could you forget? When those commercials come on, I can't flip the channel, I find it difficult to deter my eyes from the screen. Have you seen the newest commercial featuring the smallest iPod ever? It's for the shuffle. Let me tell you, these ads entertain me. This is for multiple reasons. Firstly, I am interested in the product. Secondly, I love music and its use in the commercials is uplifting. Thirdly, the execution is distinct and memorable. I am not bombarded with information. I just get the pleasure of seeing someone dance around as if they were alone in their bedroom. BRILLIANT. Music: It's something we can all relate to, it's something most of us love. I've already shared my personal opinion about the necessity of music in college. Pandora has an amazing free service. It profits off of advertisements featured on its site, you'd think they'd consider investing in some advertisements of their own. I can already imagine the potential for such a great product. Come on, Pandora, think about it. With advertising, your service's popularity would skyrocket, your business would flourish, and your fans would enjoy watching your young service grow and develop into a mature branded adult.

Internet Radio Pros and Cons

It's clear that internet radio is very convenient for those who spend hours in front of a computer at work or doing school work, but there are definitely some drawbacks. First of all, sometimes the personalized selections don't meet your needs at the moment. One second you can be in the mood for anything and a minute later you can be annoyed by every song you hear. Other internet stations usually don't allow you to skip the music they provide. Luckily, Pandora allows you to skip five songs in a given time period, but if the sixth song you hear is just NOT doing it for you, and you feel it's time to move on, you may be out of luck.

Luckily with Pandora, you can make multiple stations and you are given the option to "thumbs down" a song. This means that Pandora will no longer play others like it. In the end, you end up with radio stations that know you better than you know yourself.

It seems that since there are no commercial interruptions, a station would eventually become pricey. In order to avoid this, Pandora has made limitations on its website to insure their banner ads get viewed. If the Pandora webpage is minimized at the end of a song, the music will stop playing until you maximize the box. This allows Pandora to keep track of who has seen the ads. This may seem like a nuisance, but this feature keeps Pandora free of charge to all the music lovers of the world. I personally think it's worth it and maybe eventually they'll offer a paid version with even more options. Check out Matthew Schaer's opinion about the whole online radio revolution.

Music is My Life.

Let me share a quick story about how Pandora has effected my day.

I'm at student at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and as you may assume, it's pretty chilly out here. A boiler is out in our apartment and it's been about 55 degrees inside and about 12 degrees outside. This, along with the fact that final exams begin next week has kept me at the library for hours on end. I arrived at the library ready for a long night of paper writing and research and I automatically reached for my ipod. It was D.O.A.

If this same event would've occurred last year, before I knew about Pandora, I would've seriously considered trucking back through the snow in order to get a little music.

In case you are unfamiliar with the importance of music in college, let me fill in you in. If you don't have it with you at all times, you are vulnerable to the attacks of loud talkers. Say you are attempting to email a professor, and a slacker from your sociology class approaches you and wants to talk the quiz next week. You know he is only really interested in stealing your notes. Ahhh...What to do?! Well, if you have headphones, you can just hover them over your ears while he chats and eventually, unless he is completely oblivious to your body language, he SHOULD realize you are not interested in conversing.
Another way headphones and some good music can come in handy is for the chattering sorority chic who is deciding to explain to the entire quiet study room how drunk she was last night. If you really don't care to hear how she made the jungle juice or who won the beer pong tournament, just headphone it. I'm telling you, music is crucial in this scene.

I'm sure you can now understand why I'd walk back through the snow and up to the third floor of my freezing cold apartment to get my mp3 charger. NOW, I can just log on to Pandora.com and I know I'm going to get some great music for free. Just don't forget your headphones, or you will be trucking through the snow once again.

What's Pandora?!

I find it hard to believe that almost every person I've asked has not heard of Pandora.com. I guess I kind of feel like its a secret I've kept for quite sometime, but I feel sort of guilty for not spreading the word. It's sinful to keep this musical phenomenon to myself. In case you are one of those unlucky music lovers still in the dark, let me first explain the gist of Pandora.

Pandora.com is a free online service which provides listeners with complete control of what they want to hear. For example, say your in the mood for some acoustic, mellow music perfect for studying. All you have to do is enter either one song, one artist, or one genre into the search box. Within seconds, Pandora will offer you a song that fits your description. You can any music you'd like at any time.

There are 2 factors of Pandora.com that keep me coming back for more. The first is the abillty to deny a song at any time. I seriously hate most radios, including those online because I cannot reject a terrible or overplayed song. Pandora gives me that power. I guess you can call me a musical control freak, but hey, I'm the one listening, I should have that control.

The second main advantage to Pandora is that it introduces me to new bands and songs. Unlike my overplayed 5,000 songs on my computer or my overplayed 500 on my iPOD, Pandora keeps it fresh. I love that! It was created by what they call the Music Genome Project. Read more about their motives.

If you haven't logged on, I highly reccommend giving it a shot. Trust me, once you step inside Pandora's box, you won't want to leave.