Cracking Pandora - How to Write a Hit Song

Had Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora.com, on Music Business Radio a couple of weeks ago, and I've been playing around with the service ever since.

For those that don't know about Pandora, let me bring you up to speed...

Pandora is an online radio station, which gives users an individual "station" based on their likes and dislikes.  You pick a song or artist and Pandora takes it from there.

Songs on the service are organized based on 396 characteristics.  With each song played, you have an opportunity to say "I like this" or "I don't like this."  If you like a certain song, you get other songs with similar characteristics.  And if you don't like a song, you get less of those songs.

For example... Just now, I created a station based on the band U2.  The first song played was "Miss Sarjevo."  The second song was "Every Breath You Take" by the Police.  Third song, "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine" by the Killers.

Here is what I found interesting...

Unlike Amazon, which makes selections based on "People who purchased X album also purchased Y album," Pandora doesn't look at sales records or what it thinks you might like based on demographics or anything like that.  The only thing it looks at is the uniqueness of the music itself.

My assistant lives in Toronto.  The morning I was interviewing Tim, I had her on the phone, going over the day's schedule, and we were discussing Pandora.  I typed in Aldo Nova, a well known Canadian musician, just to see what would come up.  And I got other Canadian musicians from the same time, such as Honeymoon Suite, Loverboy, and Triumph.

Interesting, right?  Especially since Pandora isn't looking at geography or time period.

But here is where it got really interesting...

Bon Jovi kept coming up.  Specifically, songs from their self-titled album, such as "Runaway."

Why?  Pandora said it was this...

electric rock instrumentation
a subtle use of vocal harmony
acoustic rhythm piano
repetitive melodic phrasing
a vocal-centric aesthetic
minor key tonality
electric rhythm guitars
a dynamic male vocalist

But the interesting thing to me was that Aldo Nova actually played guitar on that record as well as co-wrote several of the songs.

Obviously, there is some kind of "footprint" being left behind by Aldo Nova, even though he wasn't the artist.  And that same mark went on to brand other songs during that time and from his area of the world.

Do all songs have a "footprint" like this? Assuming they do, could it be that Pandora has the ability to "decode" a hit song for you?

Think about it...  People who a certain genre of music, enjoy more than one act from that genre.  But not everybody who likes "rock music" will enjoy every song in the genre.

But what if you took the "genre" of a specific song and split it into 396 characteristics...  Couldn't you recreate it in a new song that lovers of the original song would also enjoy?

Something to think about...

For those of you interesting in writing a commercial song, hit Pandora.com, start a new station based on something hot, and see what characteristics pop up.  Probably little things that you never would have analyzed before-- type of hi-hat, slight use of vibrato, etc.

And if you're not interested in a commercial song, but want something more "artsy" that will impress even the most apathetic of indie record store clerks, you can analyze songs like that also. 

Whatever you want, Pandora looks at it all the same, which is what I find so interesting about it.  One characteristic isn't any better than the other, it's just different.

If any of you try this, please let me know how it works for you.  And if you have any thoughts on the subject, feel free to post them below.   

Comments

[NT]

I do game/TV/soundtrack music, and when I get a new gig I usually make a Pandora station from the artists the client mentioned and take note of the common "characteristics" for the songs. I can't say it's a HUGE influence when I start writing & recording, but it does provide a useful reference!

[Leonardo Rodriguez]

I really like the exposure to new music I get with Pandora. However, most of the time I hear music because I love the lyrics of a certain song or artist. With Pandora I get similar sounding songs but with a very different lyric quality and that's a turn off for me. But I still think Pandora is a great step towards the right direction.