Sobre o Pandora

«So we have companies like Pandora, seeking to, as its founder, Tim Westergren, puts it, "understand the DNA of music'. His company, which now contracts with Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, AOL, and Tower Records to make music recommendations for their custamers, employs thirty "music analysts" with a minimum requirement of a four-year degree in music theory. Every time a song arrives in this musical DNA shop, an analyst will devote twenty to thirty minutes of intense concentration to identifying as many as our hundred distinct variables, or "genes". Just to capture the emotional metrics of the singing voice, there are thirty-two variables: things like timbre, vibrato, pitch, and range. "Any voice can be understood as the combination of these genes", says Westergren. When this system is applied to all the instruments as well as the traits of the song - tempo, amplitude, etc. - the analyst produces a précis. If done right, says Westergren, another analyst can look at and virtually play the whole song in his or her head. More to the point, using this Music Genome Project, you can automate what a disk jockey does to customize a set according to your tastes» (levy, 2006: 252) 

«And for people who don't have the time to go out and find music? There's Pandora, an online streaming music service that suggests new songs based on ones you already like. "We would like to be the best radio station in the world for everybody," claims Tim Westergren, the founder. Professional musicians at Pandora have spent the last six years analyzing songs based on 400 different musical attributes called the music genome project. "We have this DNA of music and when you come to Pandora you type in the name of a song you like. Pandora takes a looks at that song's DNA and tried to find musical neighbours."» (http://www.cbc.ca/theend/radio.html)