The StuSie

Pandora's (Juke)Box

I've received a lot of emails (none) asking for a post about internet radio stations, and to be honest, I've never been much of a fan. I don't mind streaming an actual radio station through the interweb, but with the possible exception of certain trance stations, I'm not terribly enamored of the pure internet variety. Until now. (Jeremy Clarkson-esque-transition)

Pandora Internet Radio, or "sweet sweetness" as I like to call it, is the latest venture from the folks at the Music Genome Project, whose life's ambition it is to classify all music ... ever. All you and I have to do to enjoy Pandora's music playing goodness is to to go the site, type in a song or an artist we like, and they do the rest. You have to register after the first time you use it, but it's free and very little hassle. You even have the option to pay a little and not deal with ads, but don't bother, I've spent the last four nights listening to it and I haven't heard an ad yet.
What's truly remarkable is that it really does play music you want to hear (excepting a few mistakes here and there). I've learned about some artists I'd never heard of through it, which is always a bonus, and you can indicate whether you like a song or not. If you don't want to hear that song ever again, so be it. If you're just sick of a song at the moment and don't want to hear it for a month, that's cool too. It saves your customized stations, so you can go back to them, or you can play a mixture of all of them. It really is amazing.
They can't play a specific song on request, because of the way their licensing is set up, but that hardly matters because of the amazing music library at their fingertips. Perhaps the best use of Pandora is when you're in a hurry for some music, you don't want to spend all day putting together a playlist because you've got shit to do, or you just want to chill with some friends, so you go to the site, enter the first artist or song that comes into your head, and away you go, unlimited tune-age to hang by. Check it out bitches.

posted by Der Staubsauger @ 20:36