Pandora launches Voice Mode a new native smart assistant that allows listeners to control Pandora’s mobile app and enjoy new music discovery using simple voice commands. Pandora is rolling out access to Voice Mode to select listeners on iOS and Android, with general availability for all mobile users coming soon.
“Pandora is the leader in personalized audio entertainment, and millions of our listeners are already loving the experience we’ve created on smart speakers and other voice-enabled connected devices,” said Chris Phillips, Chief Product Officer, Pandora. “With Voice Mode, we are introducing an even more natural and conversational way for listeners to discover new music and enhance their experience directly in the Pandora mobile app, like getting recommendations from a friend who really knows you.”
By saying the wake phrase “Hey Pandora” followed by a request, users can enjoy the full range of their Pandora experience hands-free whether they’re driving, cooking, working out, or entertaining friends. Voice Mode uses Natural Language Understanding technology to respond to a wide array of requests which include:
- Control requests to change stations, control volume, skip or pause music, and other basic navigation commands.
- Thematic requests delivering personalized music based on each user’s unique tastes, moods, and favourite activities like “play something for my workout” or “play music for relaxing.”
- Open-ended requests like “play something different,” “play something I like” or “play more like this.”
- Basic requests for a specific artist, song, station, podcast or playlist like “play new music by…” or “play my happy jams playlist.”
- Interactive requests like “what song is this?” or directional requests like “add this song to my party playlist” or “I like this” to give a thumbs-up.
Pandora’s predictive understanding of individual listener preferences is powered by its Music Genome Project – a rich dataset of music-listening information. For Voice Mode, Pandora has partnered with SoundHound Inc.’s Houndify voice and conversational AI platform featuring its proprietary Speech-to-Meaning™ and Deep Meaning Understanding™ technologies, which deliver unprecedented speed, accuracy, and intelligence in voice recognition and understanding.
Pandora was recently acquired by SiriusXM to form the world’s largest audio entertainment company with an expected turnover of over $7 Bn in 2018.
