Community Blog

What is the Music Genome Project?

 Inspired by the Human Genome Project of the 1990s and early 2000s, the Music Genome Project (MGP) was conceived by Pandora founder Tim Westergren to catalog the fundamental characteristics of the vast body of recorded music. The goal of this ambitious project was to allow music lovers to discover music based on inherent musical qualities, rather than sales data or industry-backed marketing.  The Music Genome Project provides a detailed analysis of millions of songs, describing features of harmony, rhythm, melody, vocals, instrumentation, lyrics, and more.  This data powers our best-in-class recommendation algorithms. Thanks to the rigorous and detailed music analysis of the Music Genome Project, none of our competitors can come close to the depth of our content understanding.

With this week’s update to the Pandora app for iOS and iPadOS, users can now make enjoying their favorite music and podcasts on their device even easier with Pandora’s new home screen widget for iPhone and iPad.

Today we’re introducing Artist Takeovers, a brand new way to connect with your favorite artists. These new hosted listening Modes will live on top stations and feature the biggest names in music across Pandora’s most popular genres. Artist Takeovers will feature music handpicked by the artist including a mix of their own songs and personal favorites from other artists, with special audio commentary describing their selections and what they mean to them.

We launched Thumbprint Radio 5 years ago as a new kind of hyper-personalized music station for Pandora users, one that’s based off the songs that each listener has thumbed-up to let us know which ones they love the most.

It’s no secret that Pandora is the best at bringing users the perfect audio entertainment experience for the moment they’re in right NOW – whether they’re at home, in the car, or on the go.