News From The CES
Talk Audio are not at the CES in Las Vegas this year but we can now report on what’s new, tinged with a sad note. This is because of Hope being kept locked in Pandora’s Box. For over in the USA, there is a super cool new music concept, tying some really clever work together and we don’t have it here yet, nor know when we ever will, due to territorial music license issues and the Global nature of the ‘Net.
While we have DAB in place of the USA’s HD radio and digital satellite radio technology for car use, this is different. It’s Internet radio with a mobile twist and it’s called Pandora. Instead of a gazillion stations like “Christmas All Year Round” or “Tibetan Nose flute Hardcore” you sign up to Pandora Internet radio on their site and a clever thing happens. You decide on your ‘virtual stations’ called Pandora Stations based on a track or artist you like. Then the site streams the music it chooses to fit your description. Pandora’s system allows you to thumbs-up or thumbs-down the songs you hear and even skip if you don’t like it. You get 40 hours free music a month but can only skip a limited number of tracks per hour or per 24 hours. When 40 hours runs out, you can buy more unlimited music that month for 99 cents. Or you can wait for the next calendar month’s 40 hours to come round on the 1st.
They make their money by offering a pay-version without the multimedia advertising (which is kept under control they say) and allowing all sorts of extras. Thing is, the folks using it at home online are the least of it, for it is also an iPhone app in the USA and it’s huge.
After all, it’s all about new music and of course you can Amazon or iTunes-purchase stuff you enjoy by flagging it as it plays. The really clever thing is you can make say a ‘Kraftwerk’ station and the system will play you their music and also others, based on the Music Genome Project. The Human Genome Project was an epic of science and was about mapping the whole DNA of human kind. The music version has been running since 2000 and has covered hundreds of thousands of artists. One amazing feature of Pandora is that it uses the data of the Music Genome Project to help decide on other tunes you might like. They reckon 80% of the time they get it right….
Amazingly this means music selection isn’t by ‘genre’ or artist but by each song’s ‘DNA’. So if a heavy Metaller sings some heart wrenching ballad of beauty and you have a soppy station labelled as guilty pleasure and started with a similar track by some 80’s soft metal outfit, like say Heart, you might find it playing on your Pandora station. It’s reckoned to be one of the most important ways music will be found (and sold) in the future via links to aforesaid vendors.
And in the USA, launched at the CES, both Alpine and Pioneer have included dedicated iPhone Pandora application control in their firmware structure for 2010. Here’s some stuff from the Alpine release and then a slice from the Pioneer USA information: 
The iDA-X305S is the first Alpine Digital Media Receiver to offer direct control over the iPhone Pandora App. When the iPhone is connected to the iDA-X305S through the USB connection, the head unit can play Pandora stations from the user’s Pandora account in the iPhone app. The user can keep or discard new songs suggested by Pandora and these songs stay on the user’s profile for the next time the account is accessed.
Pioneer’s new AVIC-X920BT integrates sophisticated navigation capabilities as well as new groundbreaking features, including a revolutionary 3D touch slide interface, Pioneer MusicSphere and ECO Graph. In addition to built-in navigation capabilities, the new double-DIN AVIC-X920BT features a large 6.1-inch WVGA hi-resolution touch screen display, a 3D graphics accelerator, DVD playback, built-in Bluetooth1 for hands-free calling and music streaming, USB connectivity2 for iPod/iPhone connectivity, micro SD card slot, back-up camera input and is SIRIUS XM3 satellite and HD Radio4 ready. 