Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Pandora

Thanks to DQ reader Mark Lahren for sending me a link to an online music project named "Pandora."

Here's how Pandora works: input the name of an artist or a specific song title that you like, and Pandora then generates a playlist of songs that include similar elements (as well as some songs from the artist you originally input). It basically becomes an Internet radio station at that point--I'm listening to it right now. And that station then becomes part of your personal list (which can contain up to 100 stations), so you can call it up at any time.

It gets better. You can give feedback on individual songs, which further customizes your playlist. And you can add artists/songs to a radio station, if you want to hear multiple types of music.

What makes this so interesting is that it's a great way to discover new music based on music that you already like. I have a list of new bands to check out that I'd never even heard of until yesterday, and I've only scratched the surface of the kinds of music I like to listen to.

There's a free 10-hour trial (which is what I'm using now). After that, subscriptions are $36 annually or $12 quarterly. It's not an inexpensive subscription, but like I said, there's a free 10-hour trial (which requires no sign-up--just start using it), and it's pretty addictive.

Here's the link: http://pandora.com/.

Site Meter