Document Type
Dissertation
First Faculty Advisor
Bishop, James
Second Faculty Advisor
Schumacher, Phyllis
Keywords
Spotify; Pandora; Internet Radio; Radio Personalization; Streaming
Publisher
Bryant University
Abstract
Unlike traditional stations, internet radio stations try to complete the task of effectively
identifying the individual in their audience and then cater to their musical taste. The
effectiveness of these stations can be analyzed through popular music customization mediums,
such as Pandora and Spotify. This paper seeks to analyze Pandora and Spotify and research
why they are such popular mediums for their users and how effective each site is in satisfying
a need for personalized radio. Specifically, what medium used for internet radio best caters
to the needs of users in terms of website features (extent of personalization and social media
integration), availability of services (access and costs), and music appreciation features
(quality, content and variety)? This paper highlights what qualities users value most of
Pandora and Spotify. Two experiments are performed, one is objective (self-conductive) and
the other is subjective (with a group of college age listeners) which answers the question:
when both mediums are given the same parameters how do their performances differ? There
is a survey associated with the subjective experiment where users provide demographic
information and rank certain features based on their performance. Although neither station
significantly outperformed the other in terms of the subjective experiment, many of the
differences between the two services are highlighted throughout the paper.
