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By building the Music Genome Project into a platform that analyzed hundreds of musical attributes and reached 80 million active users, Westergren proved algorithmic recommendation could reshape how an entire country discovers music — years before streaming made it standard.
Tim Westergren co-founded Pandora, the internet radio platform built on the Music Genome Project, a system that analyzes hundreds of musical attributes to recommend songs.
Founded in 2000, Pandora grew to more than 80 million active users, went public in 2011, and was acquired by SiriusXM in 2019. A former musician and composer, Westergren helped pioneer algorithmic recommendation in consumer media.
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