The music service Pandora was founded in 2000.
Pandora began as Savage Beast Technologies, a company connected with the Music Genome Project. The project attempted to describe songs through many musical characteristics so that software could recommend tracks with related qualities. That recommendation system became the foundation of Pandora’s internet-radio service.
The company later adopted the Pandora name and became known for personalized streaming stations. Its service differed from a conventional on-demand music library because listeners generally selected an artist, song, or genre and received a station shaped by algorithmic recommendations.
Pandora’s founding year is 2000, not the year the brand became widely popular or the year it changed corporate names. The service’s history also explains why its brand is associated with music discovery rather than with the jewelry company or the ancient Greek myth.