Changes in Pandora

The invention of the radio revolutionized the way in which Americans were entertained in their homes. Following that, the insertion of televisions, computers, and internet providers into virtually every home in America kept the entertainment world on its toes in keeping up with the technological advances of the times. However the latest of these inventions, the internet, has revolutionized the public's view of all of the previous industries, as it provides its users with access to both radio stations and television programs. Perhaps one of the most unique ideas on the internet today is that of personalized radio stations. One of these free personalized online radio sources in Pandora, which is available throughout the entire continental United States.

For the average user, Pandora is absolutely free. To start off, Pandora simply allows users to pick genres of music or artists and then the radio station program "intelligently" selects other songs or artists with similar styles that it believes might interest a user. The user can then simply stream the music free of charge anywhere that he or she has access to a computer with the internet. This was how Pandora's services began. However, as the popularity increased, so did Pandora's need for sponsorships in order to keep providing this free service to the public.

Because of this, Pandora today is slightly different than what it originated as. Users now have a limited amount of free hours per month (around thirty hours), and they can spread out these hours over any amount of "stations" that they themselves have "created" on their Pandora accounts. If they use up all of these hours before the end of the month they have the options of purchasing more hours to be used that month for a small fee or upgrading their account to having an unlimited amount of hours for every month (for a larger fee).

However, perhaps the greatest change that Pandora has introduced within the past year is the appearance of brief advertisements/ commercials during its stations. These commercials fund the Pandora program and usually only last between thirty seconds to a minute in length and cover a full range of subjects, from brand jeans to marriage seminars. The companies that have purchased these advertisement opportunities have bought into an interesting market; unlike regular radio commercials, they actually have a visual part with the audio voice just like a television commercial. However, unlike television commercials, these Pandora commercials are being addressed to audiences that are using a service primarily for audio (and not visual) purposed.

Overall, the changes that Pandora has made to its programming are minimal, but they do create a different feel for the program that what it originated as.