Much has been made of Pandora's "Music Genome Project," the math and algorithms that help users of the Internet Radio service find artists and songs they like. But at the heart of Pandora are its analysts, the humans who listen to every track and log more than 400 musical attributes into the Genome. Here are a handful of them.

Title: Manager of Music Curation


Favorite genre: All Music!


Favorite artist(s) right now: Silver Jews, Johannes Brahms, TuNe-YArDs, The National, Francis Poulenc


Favorite Pandora station: Thomas Tallis Radio


Instrument(s) played: Guitar, piano, miscellaneous others.

Current or past band or group membership: Member of "Michael Zapruder."

Music Education: Initially self-taught, Zapruder studied musicianship and theory at UC Berkeley and guitar, piano, voice and composition with private teachers. He has played thousands of shows and toured the U.S. numerous times, learning life lessons in the school of rock and roll.

Michael Zapruder is Pandora's music curator. He directs the team that is responsible for research, evaluation, and acquisition of content for Pandora as well as for maintenance and improvement of various Pandora stations. He is a senior member of the music operation (Music Genome Project) team, and provides musicological perspectives as a member of the playlist improvement group, which designs and tests the algorithms used to make Pandora stations.

Michael Zapruder's most recent record, Dragon Chinese Cocktail Horoscope (SideCho Records) won the 2009 Independent Music Award for Best Singer-Songwriter Album. His discography includes two other solo records and the 52 Songs project, for which he wrote, recorded, and posted online one song a week for a year. Zapruder's new record will be available later this year. Entitled Pink Thunder, it is a collection of pop art-songs composed from the work of twenty-two published American poets.

Title: Senior Music Analyst

Favorite genre: Dubstep (as of now)

Favorite artist(s) right now: Rusko, Them Crooked Vultures, Wayne Krantz

Favorite Pandora station: Gustav Mahler radio

Instrument(s) played: Drum set

Past band or group membership: Chuck Prophet, Sheryl Crow, Jeff Trott, Stephen Ashbrook, Eric McFadden Trio (Also play piano, and guitar and compose music on my own)

Music Education: Studio Music/Jazz Performance From the University of Miami. Drum instructor was Steve Rucker, who played drums with the Bee Gees as well as many others.

Title: Music Analyst

Favorite genre: Jazz/African

Favorite artist(s) right now: Mother Hips/Billy Preston

Favorite Pandora station: McCoy Tyner

Instrument(s) played and then include any current or past band or group membership: Hammond B-3 organ/Piano/Electric Piano/Clavinette

Music Education: Danny holds a BA in Humanities from UC Berkeley and has studied classical and jazz from age 10 -present. He feels his musical education is also a result of those he’s toured and recorded* with:

Jonathan Richman* 1996-1997

Shelby Lynne 2000-2001

Ryan Adams 2001-2003

Counting Crows 2004/2008

Tift Merritt * 2004- present

Mother Hips* 1996-present

Title: Music Analyst

Favorite genre: Experimental R & B

Favorite artist(s) right now: The Dirty Projectors, and Pat Jordache

Favorite Pandora station: I've been listening to the Big Boi station a lot recently

Instrument(s) played: Bass, drums and a little keyboard.

Currently I am in the bands Tune-Yards, Beep, Quinn, Hotel, Sh*t Pony, and working on a new solo project called Naytronix.

Music Education: Bachelors degree in music from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. My major was jazz performance and my primary instrument was the upright bass.

Title: Senior Music Analyst in Pop, Jazz, and Indian Genomes

Favorite genre: Jazz and Raga Music (i.e. American Classical Music and Indian Classical Music)

Favorite artist(s) right now: John Coltrane Quartet, Nikhil Banerjee, Anouar Brahem

Favorite Pandora station: Ali Akbar Khan Radio

Instrument(s) played: Drum set, Tabla

Current or past band membership: NAMASKAR, Marc Cary Focus Trio, The Supplicants, VidyA, Kosmic Renaissance, Neel Murgai Ensemble, Mitch Marcus Quintet

Music Education: BA in Music Percussion Performance in 1998 and also studied Indian Classical music under the tabla maestro Pandit Anindo Chatterjee.

Title: Music Operations Manager

Favorite genre: Jazz (and lots of others)

Favorite artist(s) right now: Oscar Peterson, Wilco, Bruce Springsteen

Favorite Pandora station: Fruit Bats

Instrument(s) played: Piano/Organ.

Current or past band or group membership: AT&T Park Organist for San Francisco Giants, Michael Zapruder's Rain Of Frogs

Music Education: Environmental science major and music minor at Washington University in St. Louis. Studied privately since elementary school.

Title: Senior Music Analyst

Favorite genre: Jazz

Favorite artist(s) right now: Otis Redding

Favorite Pandora station: Otis Redding or Chopin

Instrument(s) played: Bass, vocals, piano, guitar

Past and present bands: My own band, Sean Hayes, Mark Growden, and Tom Waits, Beats Antique, Jon Vanderslice

Music Education: Studied jazz and classical bass performance at San Francisco State University