Pandora Goes Social With New Design

The music genome project seemed like something of a lofty non-profit think tank. Then Pandora went public in June and now sits daintily on the hot seat with a nearly 3 billion dollar valuation and 30 million users.

Up until now, Pandora had been all about the algorithm. Users create stations and get great (or spotty) recommendations based on sound characteristics and whether they “like” a song or not.

On Tuesday, Pandora announced it would add new social networking features to the algorithmic music service. Meanwhile, some in the industry wondered if the redesign and new social features would be enough to make the company profitable.

The new Pandora, which has been rebuilt in HTML 5, is being rolled out immediately to premium subscribers. Pandora’s free users, who make up a majority on the site, will get to take a crack at Pandora Social in the near future.

The design changes, detailed here, include more in-depth profile pages as well as a feed of what songs your friends are listening to. Pandora says they’ve optimized the site around the “most important information and most often performed actions.”

While the rest of the world seems resigned to the fact that Facebook has conquered the social graph and found the solution to all our Internet identity problems, it’s kind of fascinating to see Pandora taking a calculated stab at the social space. They do have some firepower with their large user base and recent $16 a share vote of public confidence. They’re probably also looking around the corner at Spotify’s launch (wasn’t that supposed to happen this week?)