I think there’s another dimension to this Pandora thing that’s being missed entirely. Or maybe it hasn’t been missed, but nobody is talking about it, which wouldn’t surprise me either, given how creative people are getting at playing around with data.

I’m thinking here of dating services.

The traditional modus operandi of a dating service is to have users create a “profile” of who they are, what they like, and so on, with the service crunching the numbers and coming up with “matches” which, let’s face it, are typically not that wonderful. The problem is that even if people are being honest, their self-reportage is likely not true. We all live behind veils of self-delusion that are easily seen through by others on a first date, and so what was the point of the dating service?

Music, however, is an open conduit into the soul. When you create Pandora stations, and when you click certain ones to create a “shuffle”, you tell more truth about who you really are than you could ever reveal in answers to a questionnaire, no matter how long and tedious it might be.

What does it mean that I like Indian ragas mixed with Chicago-style blues, hip-hop, 17th-century chamber music, opera, African drumming and bluegrass? And that I’m nuts about Etta James, Mary J. Blige and Sara Bareilles? I don’t know, but I’m sure the psych people who make a living studying such things could, given some money and time, use that kind of data to unearth the real me, which would enable them to deliver dates that would be magical for both of us.

Now you’re talkin’ profit center!