A few days ago I wrote a piece on testing Bing's search API using Vordel SOAPbox. Since then, I've tested some other APIs (URL/REST based, SOAP, and JSON) using Vordel SOAPbox. One which sprung to mind was Pandora. Although it's relatively unknown outside of the US, since it is legal only in the US, Pandora is a handy online music streaming service. You "train" Pandora by providing it with feedback on the songs it chooses to play to you. I was thinking "they must have an API which could be used to write an app to train Pandora more efficiently than voting on each song in real-time". But, I discovered that Pandora doesn't have an API (unless you count the client-side JavaScript API referenced here, but it can't be run over the network of course).
When you think about it, it's obvious why Pandora would not have an API. They make money from advertising. If you can mould your own app like a piece of modelling clay, incorporating a feed of music from Pandora but not Pandora's advertisments, then Pandora lose out on money.
A pity though. Imagine, for example, an app which would go through your local collection of MP3's and mark each one as a "thumbs up" on your Pandora profile? That would be useful. But there is no public API to build such a thing...
Thinking lazily about music and discogs
1 day ago