Pandora Meetup with Founder Tim Westergren in Birmingham Oct 19

Received a really cool email yesterday from Tim Westergren, the founder of Pandora Radio.  If you haven’t been to Pandora.com yet, omg. Those in the know rave about Pandora as the web’s most popular free online radio service.  Why does it rock?  Pandora allows you to custom-tune stations by your own musical preference.  To geek out on you even more, Westergren et al. mapped 10,000 pop songs into the Music Genome Project, which classifies songs across genres by 150-500 subtleties (called genes), like “mild rhythm syncopation”, “minor key tonality”, or “twelve-eight time signature.”

What that means in English is that when I type in “Spoon Radio,” they’ll play similar songs by bands as diverse as The Shins, Franz Ferdinand, and Radiohead.  Plus, I can rate each song, so my stations constantly evolve themselves to my musical tastes. The bands may change, but the good songs sound the same…

This is what Tim says:

“I’m writing to invite you to Birmingham for a Pandora town hall on Monday evening, October 19th at 7pm.  Really looking forward to finally holding our first Detroit-area get together!  We have listeners all over the Detroit Metro area and surrounding suburbs - it was really hard to pick a spot.  Sorry in advance for those for whom this is out of the way - I hope you’ll rally.

It’ll be a very informal gathering. I’ll share some Pandora history, some background on the Music Genome Project, the process of creating a company, and our visions for the future (including some really cool stuff with car companies for you auto buffs). Things are moving so fast there’s lots to talk about. I’ll happily answer any burning questions you have, listen to suggestions, critiques… you name it.”

The meeting will be held at the Uptown Palladium on Monday, Oct. 19 at 7pm (just a mile from Urbane on Adams!).  Free swag is mentioned. No RSVP needed.

#1) I love when companies give you the chance to air your grievances and offer constructive criticism in person.  #2) When Pandora first went online, my girlfriend and I had some cocktails while wowing over the site, and I sent Tim Westergren a gushing fan/love note.  And he wrote me back.

See you Monday, Tim.

Love,

Ashley

Pandora

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