Pandora Internet Radio first launched its music-streaming service in 2005.
Pandora began as a project of Savage Beast Technologies, a company founded by Tim Westergren, Jon Stephens, and Will Glaser. Its music service used the Music Genome Project, an effort to classify recordings by musical characteristics so that listeners could receive stations based on songs or artists they liked. The consumer service launched publicly in 2005.
The company later became known as Pandora Media and developed one of the best-known personalized internet-radio platforms in the United States. Unlike a traditional on-demand music library, its original experience centered on algorithmically generated stations, with listener controls such as thumbs-up and thumbs-down feedback.
Pandora Internet Radio is unrelated to the ancient Greek myth except for the shared name. The brand chose “Pandora” to suggest a discovery experience containing many possibilities. It should also not be confused with Pandora jewelry or with the moon and asteroid named for the mythological figure.