Feeling like a Part of Something Bigger

For me, today's New York Times article on Internet music services is oddly apropos. You see, last night I went to a local meet-up for users of Pandora's personalized Internet radio, and there I was able to meet (and meekly thrust a business card at) founder Tim Westergren.

The meeting was scheduled to start at 7pm, but I showed up in the neighborhood earlier so I could park my car in an out-of-the-way spot I knew about a few blocks away. (Another striking coincidence is that the meeting was held just down the street from the best music-supply store in the city, and I needed a box of saxophone reeds anyway.) I showed up just at the same time as another Pandora listener whose name I unfortunately forget, and together we went into a room with a large number of empty chairs.

We were the first to arrive, and Tim was just nonchalantly sitting on the edge of the small stage and pushing buttons on a handheld device of some sort. I didn't look hard enough to see which device he had-- Blackberry, Treo, or Q, I couldn't care less at that point-- because I was about to meet the guy who came up with and implemented one of the best ideas at the crossroads of music and technology... the Music Genome Project.

We shook hands, and I talked with Tim for a bit while waiting for the hall to fill. Like many people have said when meeting someone they admire, "he was just a regular guy." Tim left to talk to the guy working the venue, and I sat and discussed the service with more listeners who were starting to trickle in.

I was in the second row, and I could feel the room filling fast behind me. When 7:00 rolled around, Tim got up and immediately the chatting ceased. He started by asking if everyone could hear, and he decided to turn off a noisy fan in the back rather than resorting to a microphone.

It really felt like a conversation. He told us about Pandora's history as a company, and attendees felt free to chime in with questions and comments pretty much from the get-go. We ended up talking about the future of Pandora and Web radio, requesting new features, and generally just bouncing around some ideas. The relaxed, casual atmosphere Tim obviously had worked hard to cultivate made it a really interesting, informative, and fun evening.

Somewhere between 8:30 and 9:00, he "concluded" things, basically just excusing those who had already heard what they wanted to hear. A number of people stuck around, including a group of researchers from UCSD who are working on the problem of getting a computer to analyze and classify music (Pandora employs a team of 50 musicologists to study individual songs so they can be matched with others for your custom station). I loved this part; where the conversation got really technical and I was able to geek out to my heart's content.

I managed to hang around in the venue long enough to be the last person there and talk to Tim individually once more. This is when I gave him my card, told him about my fascination with the Genome, and told him I'd love to help his company in any way I could: coming up with ideas for application of their research, testing proposed features, or possibly even (if they might have me one day) becoming one of their Analysts or even part of their Engineering staff.

When I flipped open my phone to call my wife and let her know I was heading home, its illuminated clock read nearly 10pm. Time really does fly when you're enjoying yourself.