Pandora Launches Personalized Radio Station Based on User Feedback

Pandora launched on Monday Thumbprint Radio, what it dubbed a “hyper-personalized” station that's tailored to listeners’ unique thumbs-up feedback. Chief Product Officer Chris Phillips called Thumbprint Radio a “collaboration between each listener and Pandora,” a dynamic collection of users’ favorite music that they’ve selected with a thumbs-up. The more a listener “thumbs,” the “better their station will get,” Phillips said. Our first listen to Thumbprint Radio started with Clair de Lune by Debussy, followed by Erik Satie’s Gymnopedies, and then jumped to House of the Rising Sun by The Animals and Time of the Season by The Zombies -- all tunes we pegged as favorites but decidedly not in the same list or for the same listening mood. Pandora said Thumbprint Radio is “not simply all of your thumbs up on shuffle” but “an experience that will seamlessly guide listeners through the wide variety of their favorites, while weaving in new music discovery along the way.” Once listeners have shared their stations, Pandora said, it dynamically updates the channel in real time based on subsequent thumbs-up ratings.