I listen to Pandora periodically. It seems to me that Pandora does a great job of grouping music by audible qualities but it misses the lyrical content! Lyrics are just as powerful as the notes and rhythms in creating the emotional experience that we love so much in music.

I want the ability to play only music with a hopeful or happy message. I haven’t found a way to do that with any service out there. It seems that genre rarely comes close to this. There is happy and hopeful music in almost every genre. The challenge is that there seems be upbeat or powerful music in almost every genre with a sad or depressing lyrical message. This incongruent music at first seems good so I give it a thumbs up but the more I listen to that particular song or artist, the more I realize that I don’t like them because of their lyrics. This makes it really difficult for me to make a truly good mix on Pandora or any other service.

If you have ideas on how to improve the music listening experience, leave a comment!