Review: Pandora offers alternative to music pirating
Rudy Raya
Issue date: 11/5/09 Section: Features
In recent years, pirated music has become a huge problem for both record companies and the people that get caught by them. Million dollar lawsuits for an iPod's worth of music get thrown around like hot potatoes. As harmless as it may seem, pirated music hurts the music industry.
The new ally in the war on piracy, Pandora, attempts to satisfy both sides of the music industry, producers and consumers.
To put it simply, Pandora is like the Costco of the music world: they allow you to sample a bunch of different types of music in hopes that you will purchase it, but nobody's really going to pay for it.
This is how it works, when visiting the website, it prompts the visitor to enter a song or artist which it quickly analyzes and with the help of its search engine, gathers multiple other songs and artists that sound similar and it creates a radio station of music that the listener may enjoy. Pandora has licenses with record companies to play their songs without some kind of charge to the listener or them as the distributer.
The great thing about the site is that it makes discovering music as simple as it could ever be. Instead of browsing through countless albums, trying to find a good sound, Pandora does it all in a matter of seconds.
The snag in this system is that visitors are only allowed to skip six songs every hour. Though visitors are given a lot more control than with usual radio stations, it is still somewhat constricting. At some point listeners are practically forced to listen to the song until they find a way to enjoy it.
Another area where the website is slightly lacking is the variety of artists that it rounds up. Many times the radio station will stick to a handful of artists. In some many cases this could be a good thing, but at times the music just becomes repetitive.
Pandora has caught on quickly with the public and as if they would just stop there, mobile applications are available on major service providers, which make music discovery a portable activity now.
Aside from a few setbacks and some annoying ads with Will.I.Am., Pandora lives up to the hype and gives listeners another musical outlet that is both convenient and entertaining.
The new ally in the war on piracy, Pandora, attempts to satisfy both sides of the music industry, producers and consumers.
To put it simply, Pandora is like the Costco of the music world: they allow you to sample a bunch of different types of music in hopes that you will purchase it, but nobody's really going to pay for it.
This is how it works, when visiting the website, it prompts the visitor to enter a song or artist which it quickly analyzes and with the help of its search engine, gathers multiple other songs and artists that sound similar and it creates a radio station of music that the listener may enjoy. Pandora has licenses with record companies to play their songs without some kind of charge to the listener or them as the distributer.
The great thing about the site is that it makes discovering music as simple as it could ever be. Instead of browsing through countless albums, trying to find a good sound, Pandora does it all in a matter of seconds.
The snag in this system is that visitors are only allowed to skip six songs every hour. Though visitors are given a lot more control than with usual radio stations, it is still somewhat constricting. At some point listeners are practically forced to listen to the song until they find a way to enjoy it.
Another area where the website is slightly lacking is the variety of artists that it rounds up. Many times the radio station will stick to a handful of artists. In some many cases this could be a good thing, but at times the music just becomes repetitive.
Pandora has caught on quickly with the public and as if they would just stop there, mobile applications are available on major service providers, which make music discovery a portable activity now.
Aside from a few setbacks and some annoying ads with Will.I.Am., Pandora lives up to the hype and gives listeners another musical outlet that is both convenient and entertaining.
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www.ipodoutlet.com
posted 11/06/09 @ 12:55 PM PST
Music piracy is a huge problem in this day and age, so if you want to purchase mp3s for your apple ipod you should check out ipod outlet.
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