Before Spotify and Apple Music took over, Pandora Radio was the go-to for music streaming. Launched in 2005, it was built on the Music Genome Project—a wild idea that broke songs down into hundreds of attributes like melody, harmony, and rhythm to serve up tracks you’d actually vibe with. You’d pick an artist or song, and boom—Pandora would build a whole station around it. It wasn’t about unlimited skips or building playlists; it was about discovering stuff you didn’t know you liked yet. At first, it was browser-only, then they dropped the iPhone app in 2008 and Android in 2009, which changed the game for on-the-go listening. It had a free, ad-supported version, and a paid upgrade called Pandora One in 2009 for people who wanted zero ads and higher quality audio. By the early 2010s, it was everywhere—cars, smart TVs, even Blu-ray players. It didn’t just stream music—it guessed what you’d want to hear next better than your friends could.