Sioux Falls and Omaha

Well, we capped off the Dakotas/Nebraska tour with a lecture at Augustana College in Sioux Falls (thanks to the Sioux Falls Jazz and Blues Society) on Thursday and a terrific town hall that evening; then a meetup at the amazing Durham museum in Omaha last night (with a relaxing drive across the plains in between). We sure lucked out on the weather this trip. Not a flake of snow.

Sioux Falls - thanks to Jeremy and the crew at the Museum for Visual Materials for being such a great host and for spreading the news locally. And what a turnout - around 250 people showed up for a very lively conversation - first time we've had more people show up than actually RSVPd. I learned something: classical music helps plants grow faster than rock music... That's apparently been scientifically proven. Go figure.

Omaha - what a beautiful city. Pops up out of nowhere. So much interesting architecture. Spent some time touring the city with a local friend (thanks Susie). Met a number of budding college entrepreneurs. My sense is that the music industry is going to see a huge influx of DIY entrants eager to enter an industry that has become much more accessible to the new participant. Should be great for innovation. Sorry we had to move from the Pizza Shoppe Collective - just had way too big an audience by the time the date rolled around.

A hearty thanks to all the local journalists who showed up and helped spread the word about the events. Appreciate your many supportive articles before and after the visit.

Some really interesting suggestions/requests from the two meetings:

A "put that song to sleep" feature that would get successively longer rather than starting at a month.

Voice commands on smartphone apps (interesting idea for in-car use).

Feature parity across all smartphones. Smartphone users clearly want a full-featured version on all phones. I continue to be amazed by how many people are now using smartphones as their primary way to listen.

More and more people are asking about being able to integrate their personal collection with Pandora. Perhaps allowing some on-demand listening through that (tricky from a licensing perspective).

Ability to buy Pandora One on a month to month basis.

Access to an open API for developers so they can start inventing new apps with data from the Music Genome Project. There's a steady drumbeat for this. Again, tricky from a licensing standpoint given all the constraints on the copyrighted material we stream.

Back home to Oakland, with many, many fond memories.

Tim (Founder)

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