This week we discussed music streaming, taste, and delivery. This is a topic that greatly interests me, given the fact that many of my favorite artists have chosen not to allow their music to be streamed. While many streaming services such as Pandora and Apple Music ensure the artists are paid for their work, Spotify runs a little bit differently. Since they offer a free service in which you can listen to any song you want, with the potential for commercial interruptions, the artists are not paid the way they should be.

http://time.com/3554468/why-taylor-swift-spotify/

I believe that streaming services are very important in today’s society of instant gratification, however there is a better way to conduct them. I am less likely to use Pandora or Apple Music, just because I want to be able to select the song I want to listen to. However, I am also less likely to pay for a streaming service. There really is no happy medium right now. Another interesting aspect of music streaming is Pandora’s music genome. Rather than computers or robots rating the songs they play, there are actual people selecting the music. 25 music analysts “grade” 10,000 songs a month. They assign one to five rankings for as many as 450 genome units per song. They are able to work on about four songs every hour. Pandora used to make the music suggestions based upon the “thumbs up” feature, but is now realizing people use the “thumbs down” and “skip” feature even more. This allows them to follow total listening hours, rather than personal rating of the song. Pandora’s goal is prediction accuracy, in that they want to match the right music to the right listener. This differs from Spotify in that their goal is to introduce the listener to music they do/will enjoy, rather than just giving them the music they want. I believe this is indicative of the type of music culture we experience today. Some people have fallen into a routine and they are comfortable with the music they listen to, while others prefer to be introduced to new artists or songs. This is why both Pandora, Spotify, and even Apple Music can all be successful at the same time.