Pandora VS Last.Fm

Streaming radio/music stations have been around for over two decades now. However in the last 8 years or so, streaming web stations where you can customize your music choice have been popular. Pandora and Last.Fm are the leaders of this pack.

The concept behind both these services is that you stream music based on your listening preferences. Listeners create ‘stations’ based on artists and/or genres and the database behind these services send you music on your computer or mobile device. The streams themselves are generated by each service’s (quite) complex formula of similarity of music based on artist, genre, style, mood, year, etc.

Pandora is very popular in America and is the leader of the industry. Last.Fm is also popular, but is more popular in the UK and Germany (2 other countries where it is free!). They both have similar features – use on mobile devices, ability to buy music, social networking, artist information and more. But they are different as you peel off the skin-layers.

Here is a comparison of the 2 services (Winner in RED) :

Cost	Free for 40 hrs per month. US only	Free in US, UK and Germany; Unlimited radio play. $3.00 in most other countries
Language	English only	English and 10 languages
Cell phone application	Yes – all major phones	Yes – some major phones
Upgrade	Yes $36 annually, Pandora One	$3/month, Subscriber
Stream generated by (Database)	Music Genome Project 400 distinct music characteristics	Audioscrobbler – based on users listening habits
Videos	Video series and ‘inside looks’. But NO artist search	Yes – search of artist generates videos (from YouTube) as well
Buy Music	Yes (ITunes and Amazon)	Yes (Amazon)
Shows/Events/ Calendars	NO	Yes detailed shows and venues information, including recommendations for user
Social networking	Yes – can see friends and their stations and bookmarked songs/artists. Can leave comment	Yes - Very advanced Facebook and MySpace like features
Desktop Client Player	Yes (with Upgraded version)	Yes FREE– ITunes, Windows Media Player, etc
Label and Artist uploads	No	Yes: For Free (Great for aspiring artists/bands)

My verdict - If you want to listen to your type of music and are less interested in social networking and additional features, (no-frills) then Pandora is for you.
If you are interested in learning more about music, getting your own band recognized, are interested in live music, and want to connect with other people with like tastes, then Last.Fm is for you.

Winner: Last.FM
(Look for Part 2 - More feature comparisons - including searching, groups, charts, tags and more!!)

Contact me:
Sujan Manandhar
Technology Integration Specialist,
Foreign Language Center
Ohio State University