Pandora.com: How to Unlock New Music & Rarities

Many times I have found that Pandora.com does not have the latest releases, or rarities of several of my favorite bands.  I recognize that this is probably to do with money, and not to do with Pandora wishing to keep the available music to a minimum.  In fact, I think Pandora does a great job of carrying a wide selection of music.  However, for music loving people like myself, more is never enough!  If a band can make more off of album sales than with Pandora.com, then especially for new releases that band or their record company is likely to restrict Pandora’s rights to boost album sales.

So what could be a solution?

I suggest that Pandora could allow their listeners the right to put money toward allowing new albums and rarities, such that the Pandora community could have the right to listen to more music.  For instance, I have long wanted more Dream Theater releases to be available, and if I could be allowed to contribute $2 or so toward the pot, a collective pool of user funds designated for the purpose of gaining the rights to specific unavailable releases in a band’s discography, I might just do that.

The Future of Car Radio (2nd Update)

My suggestion is to give listeners free individually tailored radio, paid for via advertising.  No longer should one have to change the station if they aren’t getting the radio they specifically want, just to change the station for another station that wasn’t what they specifically wanted either.

The future of radio in cars will be when listeners are allowed to create mixes especially tailed to their taste.  One would be able to say to a voice detection instrument in a car computer radio things like, “That song is good,” “That song is not good,” “I like that artist,” “I like that song, but I am tired of it,” or say “Give me the news headlines at the top of the hour.”  The news comes in many flavors, so one's favorite(s) news company such as FOX, BBC, or NPR could give top of the hour news updates.  News could also be made to interrupt music given the finding of certain alerts.  For example, new news could interrupt your radio with "terrorism" updates, and/or elections updates.  The possibilities are essentially unlimited.  Eventually through artificial intelligence a radio transmission broadcasting unit would play exactly the user’s preferences [or users’ preferences].

Of course there could be preset stations, as is the case already, but for those who desire more; there would be user defined stations, or mixes of different styles from various stations – everything voice activated unless otherwise user specified [What if people are talking in the car?].

Both Sirius XM satellite radio and Pandora don’t maximize their user’s experience.  These businesses are now primitive when we think of what can be done with radio technology.  They do not maximize our radio experience to what I would call ideal.  They are improvements over regular FM reception in car or at home radios.

We are all unique people and many of us have unique tastes.  That is something internet radio stations have capitalized on.  I like internet radio, specifically Pandora, and yet even Pandora is limited.  For example, at this time, none can select to listen to the news on Pandora.  In cars, many of us like to listen to spoken word programs.