What Should Hypebot Ask Pandora’s Founder?
In a pleasant turn of events, Tim Westergren, the founder of Pandora, is coming through North Dakota, where I live, on a town hall tour. Now, why is Tim in my state? Well, he has been traveling the country and meeting up with Pandora listeners, telling his story, and gleaning ideas from the audience about where they'd like to see the company head. It's a rather impressive feat for him to undertake. Naturally, I was able to secure an in person meet up with Tim.
Therefore, I thought I would ask the Hypebot community if they have any questions. Mostly, I'll be on the scene reporting about the town hall event, but Tim has set aside some time for me to talk to him a bit about other things too. Let me know in the comments and I'll try to make sure that your questions are asked to Tim tomorrow. Do you have anything you'd like to see me ask Tim?
Why did Pandora stop using the genome? Why does Pandora continue to boast about the genome when even they are no longer using it? What purpose does the genome serve now that you no longer use it as your leading algorithm?
I’d like to know if they’re planning to implement anything in the future, that makes it easier for independent artists to get on to the service.
I’d lie to know what role are they playing in new artist discovery tools.
As a digital distributor, I represent many labels and artists whose content is available on Pandora. We did not supply it to Pandora, but we are happy that it is available. How do we claim royalties owed from plays on Pandora? Is this income being forwarded to Sound Exchange?
2-I noticed that some but not all titles from some artists are available on Pandora. What is the procedure for delivery of missing content?
I’m aware it is to do with the millenium digital act?
Pandora still uses the genome. Where did you hear that?
Under what circumstances would they make API access to Pandora available for 3rd party developers? It would be awesome to incorporate a Pandora station into a web page or create new Pandora stations via an API. Any chance it could happen?
tell him Pandora should turn down less indie music.
Why is it that when listening to classical music I keep getting the same “greatest” hits from the big composers and no real in depth discovery even though the style instrumentation and all other aspects would deliver a far greater choice, Is the algorithm flawed?
If it is flawed for classical music or at least heavily weighed in “popularity”, how can indie acts have any shot then?
With Pandora’s statuary license fee rate set to go up year over year for the next four years, then apparently they need to renegotiate again with the copyright board, and cost increases with increased usage, how can Pandora stay profitable going forward?
I’d like for you to ask why in the 21st century is an internet radio station demanding that artists have a PHYSICAL cd for sale on Amazon before they will consider airplay. You would think that having music for sale on Itunes and Amazon downloads would be sufficient in this day and age. How about just playing the music on it’s artistic merit instead of how it’s delivered to consumers. You would think they’d be as forward thinking as the new record labels,but they’re not.Tell them to get out of the last century and get into this one. I think it’s B.S.!
Why has Pandora closed off international submissions? It was possible a few years ago, but now no longer is.