Today Pandora is expanding from Simon & Garfunkel to Seinfeld and George Carlin. The Internet radio service is adding 10,000 comedy clips from over 700 comedians to its existing music library.
A host of big names have already taken the stage, including: Bill Cosby, Bob Newhart, Cheech & Chong, Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, George Carlin, Jerry Seinfeld, Joan Rivers, Richard Pryor, Mitch Hedberg.
"Adding comedians to the mix has been one of the top requests from our listeners," Pandora founder Tim Westergren wrote in a blog post. "We've taken the same approach to comedy as we have to music: carefully and deliberately analyzing comedic 'bits' across a very large number of attributes to capture the style, delivery and content of each performance."
The Comedy Genome Project will follow the model of Pandora's Music Genome Project. Using over 100 common traits that target theme (e.g. family), delivery style (e.g. self-deprecation), and logic and language (e.g. misdirection), the Comedy Genome Project links comedians based upon material and presentation. With that information, Pandora will stream relevant material based upon user request, be it a particular comedian, comedy style, or joke.
As with the music, Pandora comedy will arrive inter-spliced with audio advertisements. Users can expect plenty of hair gel and ice cream, to start with: the first advertiser to sign on, Unilever, will promote its Axe male body products and Klondike bars, according to the New York Times.
While Pandora nearly packed its bags a few years ago, recently the company has returned for a curtain call, having filed for a $100 million dollar IPO and reached its 10 billionth "thumb" rating.