Pandora Thinks I'm a Wastebag

I’ve been spending a lot of quality time with Pandora this week due to the absence of tunes on my iPhone and my increased streaming time has allowed Pandora to figure out that I’m a wastebag. I’ve always enjoyed the full screen, full color, action triggered changing ads on Pandora but when I started to pay a bit more attention when I noticed that all of the ads that were being served up were for booze! I don’t think the music genome project was tracking me last night as Libby and I proudly belted out Livin’ on a Prayer on the way home from the bar, but they are right on with matching my radio stations with the ads they give me.




Another valuable benefit of Pandora’s ad model is the addition of branded radio stations. These stations match listeners’ personal music preferences with those that are representative of certain brands. It makes perfect sense to give me a Tanqueray Radio ad when I’m listening to Timbaland! These branded stations still give users the option to rate songs, SKIP IT, and share with their friends.




I also wonder if other users are seeing an entirely different set of sponsored stations, at least I would hope so. Even though my music preferences are fairly broad with stations ranging from Teen Pop (thanks to Libby for sharing that one with me!), Don’t Stop Believin’ Radio, Best of the 90s, Guilty Pleasure Pop Punk, and Atmosphere/Mpls Hip Hop, my ads are all very relative to my lifestyle and brands I use. Besides the Kia Moms, I get lots of booze ads, Adidas, Clean & Clear, and mobile.

I listened to a few of ‘em. Check it!

• 
  
  When Tanqueray’s Summer Vibes was kicked off with Walking in Memphis I couldn’t help but smile, think of my Blarney friends, and hope that my coworkers don’t think I’m nuts for rocking out at work again.
• 
  Kia’s Moms who Rock station played Melissa Ethridge first (ironic). Umm, SKIP IT!
  
• And of course I had to check out Verizon’s V CAST Song ID station for our friend Mike who is on the Verizon account at McCann. Nelly Furtado and Keyshia Cole on a Friday, yeah!
• Blue Moon’s Brewhouse Radio was far better than their Happy Hour station, but either way, the bright orange background and a little hope for an earlier than usual beer Friday is alright with me! Had to kill it though when More Than a Feeling came on.
• Clean & Clear Radio brought me wonderful live Jason Mraz but I got bored quickly and didn’t enjoy looking at the 16 year old girls in my browser.
  

If anyone else has a completely different set of stations and ads let us know, we’d love to hear about ‘em!





UPDATE! Even with a killer ad model, Pandora may be forced to pull the plug! What are we going to do with out our daily dose of Teen Pop?! User driven Muxtape just recently got shut down by the RIAA and it doesn't look like they're slowing down on the crackdown. Bah!