Music CD sales collapsed when Napster began its online music site, where visitors could find the song they wanted and download it for free. Though Napster ran afoul of copy right law and was shut down, the demand for single-song downloads was so intense that Apple's iTunes store became an instant hit. reluctantly, Record labels such as Sony and Warner made royalty deals with iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, and even Walmart, but the music industry's business model is under assault once again. Song download sales are shrinking, and analysts predict that streaming Internet radio services such as Pandora will take a chunk out of the market.
Billed as the station that "plays only music you like," Pandora.com offers music lovers access to their own customized "radio stations." Pandora's website visitors can submit a favorite song, artist, or composer, and Pandora's software builds a playlist of similar song.
The software that power the playlist emerged from the Music Genome Project. Launched by Pandora founder Tim Westergren. He and a team of musicians and musicologists analyze 10.000 songs a month for hundreds at attributes-harmony., rhythm, lyrics, instrumentation, vocals, genre, and others. The result of their efforts is an immense and continuously growing database that powers a recommendation engine to suggest music with similar attributes--the same musical "DNA." A visitor who asks to hear Glenn Miller's music of the 1940s will be offered old favorites such as "Heard and Soul" or "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes." An Usher fan's playlist will fill with songs by artist such as Chris Brown and T-Pain. The musicologist don't count popularity as an attribute, so unknown bands appear regularly, giving them a welcome opportunity for exposure. Through artists earn a royalty from Pandora each time their songs plays, the service is far less profitable for them than song downloads. A song must be streamed at least 200 times to earn the same royalty as one download.
With more than 50 million users, Pandora relies an targeted advertising and premium subscriptions for revenue. Westergren says "If you're a car ot beverage company, you can come to Pandora and say i'd like to put this advertisement in front of men in their 30s listening to rock music in Kansas. " People cab buy subscriptions for a few dollars a month to omit the ads".
Although most users initially enjoyed pandora's services while sitting at their computer at home or work, they can now add the streaming, customized radio service to their smartphones. The shift makes their "radio" mobile, and this is what threatens to disrupt the music industry's business model again. "It's impossible to overstate [the smartphone], "says Pandora's founder. " the iPhone has ... Almost doubled our growth rate overnight." This time around, the online stores that sell MP3 downloads will also have some adapting to do.
Provide a 2-4 Paragraph summary!
Question 1:
What are the various components of Pandora's business?
Question 2:
What are some shortcomings of downloading music?
Question 3:
How does Pandora address some shortcomings of downloading music?
Question 4:
How could music labels and online stores use the web to respond to Pandora?