Survival of the smartest

So Pandora founder, Tim Westergreen, says, “We’re approaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision,” regarding the Pandora music “application” (if you don’t know what Pandora is, read about it here). Pandora is powered by the Music Genome Project which recommends artists/music based on some choices and previous listening habits. The thing I really like about Pandora is, it will match music by song, so if a band puts out just a song I like, I can tell it to match to the styles of the song, not the band. I have not only found a lot of great music through Pandora, but I’ve also PURCHASED a lot of cool music BECAUSE of Pandora.

The human form of Pandora?

But I don’t want to turn this post into what Pandora’s done for me, and I’m not even sure there’s anything I can do for Pandora, but I have a few ideas of what Pandora can do to help itself survive.

GOOD STUFF: Coming out with the iPhone app. early was a great move, there’s not much competition in this area besides AOL Radio and some other Top 50 app. Should it be free? Sure, with ads. Come out with a $4.99 ad-less version too to help recoup the ad costs you might lose. Fortunately, there are ways to buy the song off of Pandora, from different sources I might add, that’s a good move! You might want to make this more prevalent on the main menu, one less click and I bet you have more sales.

This all reminds me of Atlas Shrugged with music and tech instead of steel and railroads. It’s up to me and you to be the John Galt in this situation and let groups like the RIAA feel the grip loosen when their model isn’t working. But we can’t blame the RIAA for Pandora’s demise, if you think about it, it’s mainly the business model that is letting them down, so let’s keep brainstorming.

One idea is to turn Pandora into more of a social networking site, bringing users of the service together, making it easier to put Pandora badges on your site/facebook/myspace, etc. Have you seen last.fm everywhere, there’s a good reason for that! When you make it easy to share and socialize, you have an army, all sharing the word of your site/service. Currently, the best option Pandora has for that is to “share a station” with a friend via email form. Now, by not having these features, it keeps Pandora streamlined and easy to use, but it’s also a double edged sword. There’s a steep price to pay and the wallet is getting empty.

Sidenote: Did you know Pandora has to pay to play the music that they play? Does buying the song help? Yeah, if you use Pandora’s link to do so and even then, it’s not much. And just think, social sites are so hot right now, if they were to come up with a successful model and gain tons of users, I’m sure the package would look appealing to someone with money. Check out these facts from TechCrunch:
“Radio stations pay different rates depending on how they broadcast music. Terrestrial stations (normal FM/AM stations) pay nothing, a tribute to their powerful corporate parents with limitless lobbying budgets. Satellite stations pay approximately 1.6 cents per hour per listener. By 2010, Pandora and other Internet radio stations, which have few lobbying resources, must pay 2.91 cents.”

To me, Pandora has a lot of potential if they would just harness it. As of this writing, if you go to their site, you wouldn’t even know they’re in trouble. There’s no statement, no call to arms, nothing. This is puzzling! So are these thoughts and ideas original? No. I’m sure they thought of all of this before, so it makes me wonder if the fall of Pandora will be intentional, not just to retire from the fight, but also to hopefully send a message. Who knows….but in the end, if they do go, we’ll probably get over it (sort of like how we’re coping with M.I.A.’s “retirement”).

First, there are other, similar sites such as slacker.com, Finetune, GrooveShark, Imeem, and even newbie MixTurtle can help fill the void if last.fm doesn’t cut it for you as a one stop shop.

Second, maybe the RIAA will think twice about the huge rates it charges internet sites to play music from “their” artists. Who knows, previous protests over this have largely gone ignored, but it doesn’t hurt to try. But let’s think about it, why only charge internet and satellite stations (Sirius/XM)? Because they don’t have control over these resources. For any one entity to have control over what I listen to is very scary. But there will music blogs and alternatives as long as we don’t stand for it and support the artists directly by not only buying their music, but also by going to their shows, buying a shirt or cd at the show and just keep showing them love as much as you can. Support the indie labels, especially the independent record shops.

In closing, I’d like to share a few songs from artists that I would not have found (or maybe not as quickly as I did) without Pandora. So thank you, Pandora for being that cool kid at school that I no longer have, I will drool over your music collection for as long as you let me!

The Rosewood Thieves – Diamond Ring

Les Savy Fav – The Sweat Descends

The Lodger – The Conversation

The Lodger – The Good Old Days (the title just seemed fitting here)