practice makes perfect

Pandora congratulates the Class of 2012! You did it and we're proud of you!

For all you high school graduates heading off to college, thanks for bringing Pandora with you. No matter where you go, we are your hometown station.

And for those of you graduating college, thanks for growing with Pandora! Hopefully the music helped you maintain focus while you studied for those finals and made all of those tough, important decisions like which roommates to live with, what subject to major in, and when to call home.

Best of luck landing your first job, continuing your education or even taking a "gap" year.

We've created a few stations for you to check out, featuring some of most thumbed up songs from the past 4 years across different genres of music. If we have missed one of your favorite styles, go ahead and create your own Class of 2012 artist station. And hey, be proud of yourself!

Class of 2012 Pop

Class of 2012 Hip Hop

Class of 2012 Dance

Class of 2012 Electronic

Classic of 2012 Indie

Class of 2012 Country

Class of 2012 Latin

Class of 2012 Rock

Class of the 80s

Class of the 90s

Class of the 2000s

-Ron (Music Curation Team)

New Orleans is the birthplace of jazz, it is a place where generations upon generations of musicians have cultivated their unique sounds, you can feel it and hear it as you walk through the city, there is nothing else quite like it.

A few of us from Pandora were very lucky to attend this year's Jazz and Heritage Festival and we soaked in the amazing sounds, hospitality and culture of the city. Our founder, Tim, and leader of music curation, Addi, spoke at the Sync Up conference, which is put on in conjunction with the festival. We also met up with some of our New Orleans listeners at a Sunday morning Town Hall. It was great to connect with our local New Orleans listeners amid such a musical weekend.

We had some amazing musical experiences on the streets of the city, both at and outside of the festival, thanks to a couple of wonderful local guides who quickly became our newest friends.

We attended a midnight concert at the historic Preservation Hall, featuring Preservation Hall's own New Orleans style jazz band. Sitting on wooden benches in the small and historic French Quarter performance space, watching a band whose tradition has been carried on through the decades, it felt like we had traveled back in time. The microphone cut out early in the show and the players carried on without missing a beat and, when they brought a non-electric megaphone to sing through, we really did travel back in time!

We were lucky to have a behind-the scenes tour of The Music Box, which is "a shantytown sound laboratory." It's an interactive musical installation in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans consisting of several playhouse-like sized structures - a Disneyland for musicians. Each small building houses one or several instruments, some unconventional and some more recognizable. We met a few of the artists and jammed on some of the instruments - I had to be wrangled out from behind the drum set so we could continue our tour! Later that night we learned about new genre that's adding to the musical heritage of New Orleans: Bounce. Local artists Nicki da B and Big Freedia performed and everyone was "getting down shaking it."

Lastly and certainly not least, this year's Jazz Fest coincided with the first-ever International Jazz Day. The event was celebrated with performances by Herbie Hancock, Kermit Ruffins, Ellis Marsalis and several other iconic artists at sunrise at Congo Square in Louis Armstrong Park. It was truly a treat top off an already music filled weekend and to be surrounded by such legendary talent so early in the morning.

I already miss New Orleans though I feel like I've carried an important part of it back with me and deeper appreciate what we strive to do at Pandora: provide people with music they'll love. The power of music is strong. Thank you, New Orleans!

-Aaron (Community Manager)

We did it! Weeks of late nights and early mornings, hundreds of tacos and thousands of music fans and now we are home from hosting our first official showcase at the South by Southwest festival in Austin TX: Pandora's very own Discovery Den.

This year the music portion of SXSW saw at least 25,000 attendees, hundreds of venues and more than 2,000 bands of every genre possible. The festival is a place where lesser known artists become discovered as well as where popular artists often show up as special guests. Some of the festival's top names this year included Bruce Springsteen, Jay-Z, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Jack White and Kanye West. At the Pandora Discovery Den, we featured four days and nights of amazing music including acts like Band of Skulls, Big K.R.I.T., Glen Hansard and Gary Clark Jr. The place was packed and people seemed to be having a good time, which we love!

Bruce Springsteen reflected on the festival in his keynote address:

"The word 'keynote' made me uncomfortable. It seemed to suggest that there was a key note to be struck that sums up whatever is going on out there in the streets: five days of bands, hundreds of venues, morning to night. And no one hardly agrees on anything in pop anymore. There is no key note. I don't think. There's no unified theory of everything. You can ask Einstein."

We hosted the Pandora Discovery Den at Antone's, a historical Austin night club that helped launch the career of Stevie Ray Vaughan and many others. Keynote or not, it was invigorating to see so many hard working artists bringing their best to the stage night after night. Dedication, creativity and well executed performances did not go unnoticed. We heard people talking about starting new Pandora stations based on the artists they were hearing.

Later in Springsteen's talk, he identified the power and purpose of music as a unifying characteristic:

"Purity of human expression is not confined to guitars... There's no right way of doing it, there's just doing it. We live in a post authentic world... It's the power and purpose of your music that still matters."

Four days and nights of music at the Pandora Discovery Den, inspired by The Boss' thoughtful words, running on very little sleep, powered by Texas BBQ and burritos, we were also reminded of the overwhelming power of music. Thank you SXSW and thank you to all of the musicians!

- Aaron (Community Manager)

(Lower Photo: Gary Clark Jr. performing at the Pandora Discovery Den at SXSW 2012)

Every March, music aficionados and fans alike head to Austin, Texas for the renowned SXSW festival and it's only a natural fit for Pandora to be there too. We are excited that, for the first time ever, we will have an official presence at the festival.

Because Pandora enriches the lives of music fans by helping them discover and rediscover music they love, we are bringing that concept to life with the Pandora Discovery Den. The Pandora Discovery Den will be hosted at the legendary Austin venue Antone's from Tuesday, March 13 through Friday, March 16.

We will treat attendees to a variety of live musical performances, spanning from Rock to Hip Hop to Americana, including Theophilus London, WALK THE MOON, Gary Clark Jr and Bahamas. Attendees will also have the chance to win daily raffles with limited-edition items, participate in hands-on technology demos and much more!

Our founder, Tim Westergren, will kick-off the Discovery Den on March 13th at 5 p.m. with a happy hour DJ event, followed by performances by We Are Augustines and Band of Skulls at 8 p.m. Daytime programming will begin daily at 12:30 p.m.

Additionally, Tim will be giving a couple presentations at the Austin Convention Center that SXSW attendees can't miss! On March 13th (3:30 - 4:30 p.m.), he will be discussing "The Evolving Role of Radio" and Pandora's role in that transition. Then, on Tuesday, March 14th (5 - 6 p.m.), for the first time publicly, he will conduct a live music DNA Analysis and showcase how the Music Genome Project works.

And, of course, don't forget to check out our live Twitter feed from SXSW (@Pandora_radio) and to watch for the latest updates by following hashtag: #PandoraATX.

Admission to the Pandora Discovery Den is free with an advance RSVP (visit http://www.pandora.com/pandoraATX for complete line-ups); SXSW badges will also be honored at the door. If you're headed to Austin, we hope to see you there!

- The Pandora Team

This evening, we are hosting our second live event as part of a new listener appreciation series. Tonight's concert features Portugal. The Man, and we've invited some of the band's most avid New York City fans to a free show at The Bowery Ballroom. One of the central missions of Pandora is to bring together bands and fans. We've been successfully doing that online for some time now, so it's exciting to see this offline component now coming to life!

We've started a special page on Pandora so that fans across the country can follow the series. Check out www.pandora.com/pandorapresents to see some of the special content, such as behind the scenes interviews, thoughts from fans, and special mixtapes that are curated by the featured band, including Portugal. The Man and the first band of the series, Dawes.

Our first show was held in Portland, Oregon, on December 13. There will be more shows to come throughout this year, so stay tuned for the next city and band announcement.

We're really looking forward to tonight's show (which is brought to our fans for free, courtesy of Budweiser). If you don't have a pass for tonight's show, a few have been set aside to give away at the door at 7 p.m. Get there early if you'd like to join us for an awesome night.

- Tim (Founder)

We had a great get-together last Thursday in our very own hometown of Oakland, CA at a perfect spot called Preservation Park, right downtown.

A really large crowd showed up, loaded with lots of questions and comments:

There were many questions about how we decide what music goes in Pandora, and on how artists are paid - including from a number of musicians whose music is on Pandora. There were also questions and suggestions about advertising on our site - is it targeted? For example, one married attendee asked about the frequency of dating site ads...I assured her this wasn't a hint of any kind!

Pandora is very conservative on this issue, and it is heartening that our listeners also have a pragmatic attitude about the business benefits - good thing considering how Pandora works!

Folks also had a lot of questions about specific stations (Allman Band, Led Zeppelin, flamenco music...) with an equal mix of complaints and compliments - one thing that our attendees learned, as did I, is that our suggestion option isn't as obvious as it could be. Need to fix that.

I was particularly struck by the number of people who were interested in Pandora's relationship to the local community, and how we see community work and philanthropy in terms of our company's mission. That's a major topic inside Pandora right now. We've been doing a lot, but are thinking strategically about how to expand. Oakland definitely has a lot of community pride. It's great to finally be able to meaningfully contribute to our community.

Really heartwarming question from someone to close off the evening: "how can we be better listeners?" Pretty cool :)

Tim (Founder)