Digital Notes: Ben Sisario via NYTimes.com

Ben Sisario via NYTimes.com

Inside Pandora: Ever wonder how Pandora’s gnomes know that if you like Kiss’s “Strutter” you will also probably like Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls”? (Disclosure: That’s from an actual Pandora playlist by this author.) The service has introduced Inside the Music, an audio-visual guide to its Music Genome Project that illustrates the characteristics of musical genres. Rock is first, with its “mild rhythmic syncopation” and “interweaving vocal harmonies.” (R&B, country, electronica, rap and classical will come later, Pandora says.) The project is sponsored by Intel, which appends a 15-second ad to each minute-long audio clip.

I wonder if this will turn out to be obvious, or if there is a deep subtlety to downtempo versus dubstep?

I am happy with my decision not to buy Pandora shares. What might change my view is if they now take their cash and public currency and buy one the emerging services and/or start adding social elements to Pandora. Neither one of these paths is assured success, but the worst case would be to see no social innovation.

- Continuations

Pandora is amazingly asocial, when you look at it. It needs a dose of Last.fm, I think.