Pandora jumps into year-end listings game with top 25 spins

Joining Shazam, Spotify, and others, Pandora today released its top 25 spins for 2014. (See graphic below.)

Unlike on-demand environments like Shazam and Spotify, Pandora users do not explicitly call up songs or albums for listening. Pandora stations are seeded with tracks or artists. As the playlist spins along, the underlying Music Genome adjusts the music selections as it learns more about the listener’s taste. Users reveal what they like or dislike by skipping songs and voting (thumbing) them up or down.

So the top-25 list is a measure of what the Music Genome deemed the best songs for all users this year. There’s another filter for this list: It contains only songs added to the Pandora catalog in 2014. So, no long-standing hit spins of music that has been available for years.

In addition to the top 25, Pandora has built a top-80 stream — warning users: “This is not your typical Pandora listening experience.” The caution is because of the many styles represented in the list; unlike the usual Pandora experience, it is not personalized. THIS LINK will take registered Pandora users to the streaming top-80 list.

pandora top spun songs 2014

Brad Hill