Key Concepts
APIs
There are six broad categories of API services available via GraphQL. They are:
- Playback: can be triggered by search, Pandora curated lists, user collections, recommendations, etc.
- Podcast: podcasts and podcast episodes
- Search: full text query sent to Pandora, returning results for supported types
- Collection: a listener's collection of music
- Feedback: thumb up or down feedback on tracks to personalize listener's music experience
- Profile: listener details like bio, name, and followers
Playback
Playback can be triggered by search, Pandora curated lists, user collections, recommendations, or even retrieving the last played track for a user (for a limited time period).
Playing a track is as easy as specifying a source to play and providing your device UUID to get a comprehensive list of metadata for the track.
Metadata available for tracks include:
- Audio URL, track name, track duration, etc.
- Album art, name, number of tracks, etc.
- Artist name, track count, bio, etc.
Feedback (thumbs up and thumbs down) can be given on tracks to personalize a listener’s music experience. A thumbs up will add similar songs and artists to your station. A thumbs down on a song will not play the track again on that station.
Other features like replay, skip, pause, play, shuffle, etc. are also available. Some features and playback sources (stations, playlists, podcasts, albums) are available or limited based on the Pandora subscription you are using. See Pandora Subscriptions and the APIs.
Podcast
Podcast programs and podcast episodes are popular types in the Pandora library. You can get a full list of all the episodes of the podcast program. Episodes are also grouped by year, season, etc depending on the podcast.
Search
A full text query sent to Pandora, returning results for supported types: Artists, Songs, Stations, Podcasts, Playlists, or Albums.
The search query can perform full text search queries for any searchable types: album, artist, podcast, podcast episode, playlist, station, station factory, and tracks. The search result will consist of all types specified, but note that using a result as playback source will be limited to the Pandora subscription of the logged in listener. For more information on how subscriptions may affect working with the APIs, see the article Pandora Subscriptions and the APIs.
Search results are paginated and page size depends on the specified limit used in the query.
Collection
Listeners add music to their collection to create a personalized music collection. When a user starts playback on a source, it gets added to their collection. Some stations are automatically added based on certain user interactions, like thumbprint station and shuffle station.
Feedback
Feedback (thumbs up and thumbs down) can be given on tracks to personalize a user’s experience. A thumbs up will add similar songs and artists to your station. A thumbs down on a song will not play the track again on that station.
Profile
Each listener has a profile with information about themselves. This includes bio, name, their followers, who they're following.