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Pandora Hear Me Screaming?

The reason I love most things is either because they listen to me or because they deliver what they promise. In both cases, the real world dictates that the beginning of a relationship starts with a period of unknown, one that is full of guessing, assumptions and half baked conclusions. This time period is the ‘trial’ period.

During this period, the relationship, whether software or human gets better (or worse) depending on how rapidly and accurately change occurs. If I told you I don’t like Billy Ray Cyrus, please please don’t play it again.

If you listen and adapt, It shows you care…whether you are a person, or software.

This is WHY Pandora is so awesome. It listens to my selfish, yet passive choices….using my actions, hitting skip, knowing how much of the song I listened to and of course the more active choices, my use of the ‘like or dislike’ thumb buttons. Sorry Billy.

Then…like magic, it will play songs I liked before and guess at songs I might like.

But…it is NOT guessing. They know, because they are listening and then adapting.

They know because they have users that like this, thumb up, hate that, thumb down, and then MY PLAYLIST is filled in with the songs others have liked, but I have not yet liked. I feel, like, a teenage girl telling you this. I’m a bit giddy and using the word, like, a lot.

Here’s a CRITICAL question…Why not do the same for Ads? Let me CHOOSE my ads…let me skip them, play another one, let me ‘like’ ads, etc. How crazy powerful would it be to know my personal ad preferences.

Priceless and revenue generating.

This would be true for both audio and display ads. Then they can play the ‘golden goose’….knowing what others like, that I have not yet liked…well, you get it..right?

This is the magic of online….capture the passive and active usage of your product, then compare it to other users that have similar usage, and fill in the gaps; everybody wins.

The point..years ago…a super smart guy told me once…your customers are passively telling you thousands of things, are you listening.

Now they call it Lean Startup. 🙂