Together our team of musician-analysts has been listening to music, one song at a time, studying and collecting literally hundreds of musical details on every track - melody, harmony, instrumentation, rhythm, vocals, lyrics. It's the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken. Since we started back in 2000, we have been hard at work on the Music Genome Project. To understand just how we do this, and why we think we do it really, really well, you need to know about the Music Genome Project ®. Update: This article has been updated with more recent catalog and data figures submitted to us by Pandora.When was the last time you fell in love with a new artist or song?Īt Pandora, we have a single mission: To play only music you'll love. At first blush, though, it does look like a serious competitor, a useful addition to Apple's iTunes empire, and a new tool for music fans to discover great music. With iTunes Radio still months away from becoming a reality, it's too early to tell what it will mean for Pandora and its listeners. Like Spotify, its direct label relationships should keep it from getting bogged down by the same laws that govern Pandora. We've yet to see what real limitations are part of iTunes Radio. Another limitation to Pandora is that users are limited to 12 total song skips every 24 hours. You can't just call up a specific song and have it play on-demand. Also, songs from the same artist or album are not allowed to play back to back. This means that features such as rewind or repeat are not permitted. Personally speaking, that's a business model that resonates a little better with me as a listener and a fan of independent music, but maybe I'm just being preemptively cynical about how Apple works with its major label partners.īecause Pandora operates without any direct label deals, it is forced to abide by the laws governing Internet radio. Its goal is to keep you glued as a habitual listener. It has no financial motivation to play a major label artist over an independent one. Pandora's endgame is to replace the role of terrestrial music radio in the hearts and minds of its listeners. It sells ads and it sells subscriptions, and it passes off purchases to iTunes and Amazon. Pandora, on the other hand, is not in the business of selling music. Watch this: Apple rethinks music with new-streaming radio service Apple could recoup its losses by selling an ad or two or getting listeners to convert to iTunes Match subscribers, but the bet that it's making is that the more good music it plays for you, the more of it you'll be inspired to buy. The purpose of iTunes Radio is to sell more music. I know its sounds like an odd criteria, but I think the most telling distinction between these two services comes down to their motivating philosophy. That functionality may reveal itself once we begin to play with iTunes Radio, but there is no mention of it in the preview material or images.Īnd while Pandora is certainly no Spotify when it comes to getting social with your song plays and playlists, it has recently modernized itself with a number of Twitter- and Facebook-friendly features, shown in the video above. At first glance, there appears to be no way to share iTunes Radio stations among friends or tweet your currently playing iTunes Radio song. Having recovered from its poorly conceived Ping service, Apple has seemingly refortified iTunes from the outside world. Pandora customers must pay $36 per year for Pandora's premium Pandora One service, which both removes ads and improves audio quality. For iTunes Radio, the subscription price is $24.99 per year for Apple's iTunes Match service, which includes ad-free iTunes radio. Pandora offers up to 192Kbps (AAC) for premium subscribers, whereas free users are capped at 128Kbps (AAC) for computers and connected appliances, and 64Kbps (AAC) for mobile.īoth iTunes Radio and Pandora can be used as free, ad-supported services, as well as offering a premium, ad-free, subscription-based tier. It can be found on both iOS and Android, as well as standalone premium apps for Mac and PC, and a number of connected appliances, such as TVs.Īpple has yet to publish specs on the streaming-audio quality of iTunes Radio, and until the service is available, we can't even offer a subjective take on the audio quality. Its best feature, arguably, is its ubiquity. While Pandora has never been a service with many bells and whistles, it is still the first name that springs to mind when you think of Internet radio.
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