Each music-streaming service has its own way users can like or add a track they are playing to their preferred list of music. Apple Music, for example, uses a heart icon. Pandora, on the other hand, features a thumbs-up icon.
While this functionality helps the algorithms know what kind of songs and artists the user prefers, the platform is now bringing all the tracks that got a thumbs-up together in a new radio station so that the user can hear all their favorite songs.
Pandora announced on Monday, Dec.14, the release of Thumbprint Radio, unique radio stations based on each listener's musical tastes.
"Thumbprint Radio is a collaboration between each listener and Pandora," Chris Phillips, chief product officer at Pandora, said in a press release. "You shared with us what music you love via all your thumbs, and we heard you. We have combined all your favorites with music we know you'll love to create a new station that reflects your unique musical thumbprint."
The hyper-personalized radio station is inspired by all the user's thumbs-ups—whether they liked it two years ago or two hours ago—and will evolve over time in real time to add new tracks that are given the thumbs-up. That means the more the user uses the thumbs-up symbol, the better their station will get.
However, Thumbprint Radio is not just all the liked songs playing on shuffle. Instead, it plays the various genres the user likes, whether it is country, EDM, or metal music, and creates the order of songs in a way that will take the listener on a musical journey. Along with weaving multiple genres into a cohesive whole, Thumbprint Radio will also play new music to discover, mixing things up to better reflect a radio station.
Pandora listeners can also share their personalized Thumbprint Radio station with their friends to give them insight into their unique musical tastes. This can be shared instead of the user's latest "Best of" playlist update.
Users will be able to get their own Thumbprint Radio station once they have three stations with at least four thumbs-up on each. Listeners can search for "Thumbprint Radio" in the mobile app to access the station, or go to https://pdora.co/thumbprintradio.
Source: Pandora
