Finding New Music That Matches Your Tastes
Budget-Conscious, Entertainment Writer, Internet User, music lover, Classic Rock Fan
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MAY
4
2007
Pandora Radio —
IntroMy son and I were looking up a new music function on Firefox and found something even better, pandora.com. The two of us were so excited at what we found, that I immediately set up a free account for myself and another for my son. Neither one of us have listened to any other music when on our computers since we found this website.
Creating Your Own Stations
At pandora.com, it allows you to make your own preset music stations that play continuously on their website. You choose an artist or a song, and the website puts together a string of songs that are similar in style to the artist or song that you chose. If you choose an artist, it puts together songs from that artist and others with that similar style, and if you choose a song, it puts together songs that are similar in style. Because of their licensing, it can't play the exact song you choose, but it can play songs that are very similar and play other songs by that artist.
For instance, I created a station for Counting Crows, and it played one of the their songs, along with a song by Jackson Browne, and several others I liked, along with some I didn't like. The great thing is, as each song comes up, you can choose to either keep it in the playlist, or remove it, while it continues to gather data about what you like and don't like. Then you can create another playlist off the new one if you like, such as I created a Jackson Browne playlist, and that brought up Eddie Money among others. You can also do other fine-tuning to the playlist such as telling it you like the song but are tired of it, and don't want to hear it for the next month, or ask pandora.com why it chose to give you that song. When you get tired of a certain station you created, you either create a new one or click over to a previous station.
The Upside
Along with playing popular music, pandora.com also plays independent music I've never heard before, opening me up to learning some new favorites. Since it's based on music I already chose that I liked, it leads to a better percentage of music that I like, rather than listening to a radio station.
The Downside
When you sign up for the service, you can either choose the free version, or a paid version, which costs $36 a year. I chose the free version, despite the fact I was cautioned that I would have to put up with ads. However, the only time I've seen the ads is when I'm switching between stations. For me, those ads are worth the savings of $36. Another downside is that because of their licensing, it only allows you to skip so many songs in an hour, so it's better just to switch stations if you find one that isn't particularly to your liking.
Conclusion
Since it can't play songs on demand, it's never going to replace the iPod or iTunes, but when you're desiring a certain type of music, it more than fits the bill.
Pandora Radio is recommended by LauraBelle
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