The Pandora App and the Music Genome Project has revolutionized the way we listen and discover music! I don’t know about you, but I am a bit impatient when it comes to discovering new music. I often equate listening to music to ordering at your favorite restaurtant. You know what dish you like, but you want to venture out and try other things on the menu. However, ordering something new often has 3 outcomes, 2 of which are less than desirable. First possible outcome, you love the dish you ordered and all is right in the world because you have expanded your spectrum of likes!
Second possible outcome, the dish you ordered is comparable to your favorite dish, but it was nothing to write home about, in essence you have not worsened nor improved your situation. The last outcome is the least desirable, you hate the dish. I feel like the last outcome always happens to me and I have order envy , which is an awful feeling and happens quite often because my sister always and mom always order awesome stuff, a conciliation is my mom usually buys 
Love you Mom! Sorry I digress!
The point is Pandora eliminates the last two outcomes! Hence, no more order envy or feeling like you are wasting time listening to music you don’t like! Pandora plays cut after cut of awesome music! You will catch yourself saying” Man I love this song a lot!” Ok now that my soapbox speech is done lets dive into the actual app itself!
The interface of Pandora is very similar to the website interface! If you don’t have an account you can create one by clicking here or create one your iPhone (creating an account is almost the exact same user experience whether you do it on your iPhone or computer). It is not mandatory to create an account on the web version, but it is mandatory on the iPhone app. I would highly recommend it because its simple, fast, easy, free and the best part is all the stations you create will be stored on Pandora’s servers so your computer and iPhone will have all the same stations synced automatically and the best part is you can login to Pandora.com on new/public computers and you will have all your stations too (when creating an account there is also an option to link it to your Facebook account with Facebook Connect this option is only when creating on an account on a computer aka the web version)!
Stations Tab Screen sorted By Date
Pandora actually started as a web based application and then ventured into the realm of handhelds and smartphones the whole time keeping the same interface and functionality (there are a few more bells and whistles on the web version but generally speaking) so it was ambiguous whether you are using the web version or iPhone app, which users love because you only have to learn how to use one version (unlike those credit card machines at gas stations and stores which have 239 different iterations of which way to hold and swipe your card, I hate that)!
*if you upgrade to the premium version, $36 annually for ad-free unlimited listening, whenever you login to a computer it automatically plays unlimited ad-free music and will have all your stations too boot!
Welcome to Pandora Screen is the first screen you will see when you open the app for the first time or sign out Now that you have your account (congrats) I will show you what your Pandora will look like after hours of scrupulous use and how add/remove stations and how to keep them organized!
The Pandora App is comprised of 4 Tabs: Stations, New Station, Bookmarks, and Settings. We will start with the Stations Tab, shown in the screen shot below. On the Stations Tab Screen, you will see all of your previously created stations. On this screen you have the ability to sort your stations By Date (most recently added at the top) or alphabetically (A-Z).
*if you want to listen to a mix of all your stations press the QuickMix button, on the web version of Pandora you can actually select individual stations to create a custom QuickMix, this functionality is not yet available in the iPhone App
Stations Tab Screen sorted A-Z
* notice the speaker with sounds waves icon next to the All These Things station in Stations Tab Screen sorted by date screen shot, this indicates this station is currently playing right now
From the Stations Tab you can press on the station to start listening! Its that simple! Don’t have any stations yet?!! No worries press on the New Station right next to the Stations tab. Now this is as they say “where the magic happens”. You input an Artist, song, or composer and Pandora will create a station that will only plays songs with similar attributes! SAy WahAA! Another great thing about making a station is the search suggestions for Pandora are so on point half the time you don’t even need to input the whole band, song, or composer. For example, in the screen shot below I was searching to create a station based on John Mayer.
New Station Tab Screen searching John Mayer
I only had to input “joh” before John Mayer popped up (kind of like a jedi mind trick!)! You can also create stations from Genres! There are 19 main Genres: Alternative, Blues, Children’s, Christian, Classical, Country, Dance, Electronic, Folk, Hip Hop, Holiday, Jazz, Latin, New Age, Oldies, Pop, R & B, Reggae, and Rock (there are sub-genres in each)! Once you have decided what station you would like to create and listen to press and enjoy auditory utopia!
Rock Sub-Genres Screen from Rock Genre
Ohooo nooo! Did you add a station you didn’t like or just never listen to? No worries deleting created stations is easy as pie! All you have to do is press on the Stations Tab, press the Edit button in the top right hand corner, and the press the red circle with white dash button, which will reveal a delete button, when you are done trimming the fat press the done button in the top right hand corner to hide the red circle with white dash buttons!
*a short cut to delete a station is to just swipe from left to right, which will reveal the delete button also!
Stations Tab Screen in Edit Mode
Now that you have mastered the skills to create and destroy your stations its time to enjoy the fruits of your labor! Once you have selected a station you are taken to the Now Playing Screen. This is where all the media controls are housed! You can skip the current song by pressing the forward button! You can give the song a thumbs up/down by pressing the corresponding button, this is especially important because Pandora gets to know you better. (scratching head huh?) Think of Pandora like your personal doctor. The first few prescriptions for certain symptoms are in a way generic, but after several visits of you telling him what works and what doesn’t the prescribing of medicine becomes more efficient and more pleasurable because the Doctor gets to know and understand the way you react to certain medicines. Pandora is essentially doing the same thing, by giving a song a rating (thumbs up for good and thumbs down for bad) you are telling Pandora (your doctor) what is working and not working. Hence, Pandora can elevate the impact of certain attributes of the songs you rated positively or negatively and construct a more pleasurable listening experience by playing songs you will like with higher probability and consistency! In layman terms, the more you use Pandora the better the listening experience gets! Also from the Now Playing Screen you can pause the station and control the volume.
*Pandora also records skipping songs as bad ratings, but it is not valued as negative as a thumbs down…i.e. they won’t stop playing song totally just less often. If a song is given thumbs down it will never be played for that station again.
Now Playing Screen
Enough talk about the boring buttons! Lets have some fun! If you press the up arrow button in between the thumbs up/down a menu will pop up and offer you four options (well 5 but I don’t really count canceling): bookmark this song, bookmark this artist, Buy from iTunes (if you are a baller), Email this station.
Upper Arrow Pressed Screen
The bookmark feature in Pandora is fantastic way to keep track of music you have newly discovered and want to buy when you get home (or download like my broke a$$, legally of course)! The Buy from iTunes button or Baller Button is pretty self-explanatory (if its not when pressed this takes you into the music store to purchase the song). The Email this station button is great way to share your musical discoveries with friends and colleagues. When pressed it generates an email for you (secretly too you never see the email or have to leave the Pandora which is awesome, kinda because if you have multiple emails for a contact it will send to their default you cannot choose). In no time an email with a link to your newly found station will be sitting in your recipients mailbox with the clever subject line of “A friend thought you would be interested in this song/artist/station”.
The last button to explore on the Now Playing Screen is in the upper right hand corner, three lines. Press this button and delve into the people and inspiration behind the music! Located on the Behind the Music Screen (that might be my best naming yet) are two write-ups: one is the band/artist’s bio and the other is a write up on why the song was chosen for this station! How cool is that! Not only can you expand your musical knowledge you can read about the bands or artists you are interested in with the touch of a button!
Behind the Music Screen – Artist Write-up
Behind the Music Screen – Why This Song is Playing Write Up
Now that you know how to bookmark lets follow the SOP (standard operating procedure, I guess that just defeats the purpose of the acronym) and figure out how to organize and share them!
Navigate back out of the Now Playing Screen by pressing the arrow in the top left hand corner. Now press on the Bookmarks Tab on the bottom. This is where all of your bookmarks live! They are sorted by, guess what: Songs and Artists (remember you only have two choices when bookmarking, Artist or Song). Once on the Bookmarks Tab Screen select a song and you will arrive at the Song Bookmark Screen. On this screen you will find 4 main buttons and a sample to listen to (you can listen to the sample by hitting the play button without having to enter the Song Profile Screen). The standard Buy from iTunes Button, Create Station from Song Button, Delete Bookmark Button (you can also employ the swiping from left to right technique to delete bookmarks too) and Email this Song to a Friend. The last button, Email this Song to a Friend allows for instant sharing of musical tastes and discoveries! It operates just like the Email this station button above, the only difference is that the link isn’t to a Pandora station, rather a link to the Song’s Profile Page on Pandora (a lot more intimate).
Bookmarks Tab Songs Screen
Song Bookmark Screen
For example, I just discovered Hey Leonardo by Blessid Union of Souls and think my buddy Jared will dig it! While on the Now Playing screen, press the up arrow button -> bookmark this song button->navigate to the Bookmarks tab by pressing the back arrow in the top left hand corner of the Now Playing Screen-> press on the bookmark ->press the Email this song to a Friend button on the Song Bookmark Screen ->select Jared from my address book! Thats it! Below is what the email looks like when Jared receives it and the Song Profile Page that the link sends him too!
What the actual Email looks like
*All the emails are generic and look like the screen shot above with the only difference being the Songs, Stations, or Artists included within them.
The artists bookmarks work in the exact same way, except instead of being able to buy the song, there is a button that will Find in iTunes (because you probably don’t want to buy every song by the artist).
The last tab to talk about is the settings tab (I know a little anti-climatic, but I have something up my sleeve). Not much going on here. This is where you would log out of your account if you wanted to sign in with a different one. Also, you can turn on/off High Quality Audio, which sounds better but could be choppy if you have a weak data connection. This is where you can turn the Autolock on or off (if you have it off the screen stays on but is a bigger drain on the battery. FYI- Pandora will still play if the screen is off and the iPhone is locked).
I have saved the coolest feature for last (I told you I have had something up my sleeve)! Whenever you orient your iPhone to landscape, no matter where you are in the app, you instantly go to a Coverflow view of the songs you have listened too with the current song being the album art farthest to the right!! So Cool! The best part is on the Flip side of the album art (just tap album art or press the little “i” in the bottom right corner) is the Behind the Music Screen! Yeaaa Mannn!!! There is even a play/pause button in the bottom left corner! Just tilt the iPhone back to Portait orientation to return to the regular view!
CoverFlow View
Behind the Music in CoverFlow View
Pandora is one of those few life changing apps and is a must have for any iPhone user and non-iPhone user in my opinion because of the web version! The $36 dollars annually is totally worth it for me because 40 hours a month wasn’t nearly enough (ads really don’t bother me), especially when you have people over, throw a Pandora Station on and like my buddy Steve says ” let it ride!” You also get a standalone application called Pandora One for your desktop which is awesome! Like always I will include a download link below!
Download Pandora iPhone App Here 
Did you use Pandora before this post?
Do you like Pandora or Last.fm?
Do you use the free version or Pandora One?
As usual leave some love in the comments if you would like!
