Pandora Radio - Listen to a Free Internet Radio Station and Discover New Music You Will Like
June 1, 2008 by Joshua Lien
Technorati Tags: Pandora, Internet radio
| Imagine sitting in your car listening to your favorite radio station when the latest, overplayed, hot song comes on and drills into your head with a dull bit for the second time in an hour. You could change the station. I do, but that involves some sacrifice. My second favorite station falls much farther down on the sound-wave-quality spectrum. Don't you wish you could just skip to the next song, much like you would with a CD or MP3 player? |
Skip Away
With Pandora, a free Internet radio station, you can. Give a song thumbs down and Pandora immediately skips to the next song and banishes the offending song (and similar songs) to the digital dungeon, never to be played on your radio station again, unless you have a change of heart and decide to issue a pardon. If you are only tired of a song or not sure you want it to sleep with the fishes, click on the skip button. Pandora will keep the song eligible for future play. You are limited to six skips per hour. That may not seem like a lot. However, once Pandora gets to know you and your tastes, you may find that you rarely need to exercise your executive veto power.
Not Your Father's Radio Station
You see, Pandora is not your typical radio station in more ways than one. It really is your station. You enter your favorite song or artist as the seed, and Pandora will grow and cultivate similar music with your help. Enter additional favorites or give a song thumbs up to encourage growth in new directions. Scale back with a thumbs down.
At the heart of Pandora radio is the Music Genome Project, which strives to break down songs to their musical DNA and categorize them accordingly. If you like one song from a species or genus, you are more likely to like the many other songs with similar characteristics. Thus, Pandora often hits the mark by playing a mixture of your old favorites and potential new favorites.
What's the Catch?
There really isn't one. Pandora on the Web is free, supported by unobtrusive advertising. Often, I listen with the browser window minimized, so I only notice the advertising when I switch to the window and give a thumbs up or down, skip, pause, or investigate a new song I like. An optional subscription to Pandora will eliminate the advertising from Pandora on the Web and open up Pandora on the Go for any supported mobile phone and Pandora in the Home (requires Sonos Digital Music System, Logitech Squeezebox, or Logitech Transporter).
I won't go into all the features for customizing and getting the most from Pandora and the listening community. Hopefully, you like what you have read enough to give it a try for yourself. I have included a link to one of my stations for your listening enjoyment, though you will have to create and fine tune at least one station of your own to truly appreciate Pandora.
Have you found any other great radio stations on the Internet? Post them in the comments for us.
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