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June 10, 2008
A Pandora's Box I Wish I'd Opened Ages Ago
Recently someone was cool enough to tell me about Pandora, a website that lets you create radio stations--as many as you want--that (attempt to) play music you like. And it's freakin' awesome.
You go to the website, create an account, and start making radio stations. You plant "seeds" of songs or bands, and some program analyzes the characteristics of those seeds to find other songs and bands that share them. Songs get played, and you can tell the program that you like the song and want to hear more like it, or you can say you don't like the song, or you can say that the song is fine but being played on the wrong station, if, for instance, you get some mellow ballad on the station you've designed to play dance music so you burn a few extra calories while you wash your dishes.
The radio station doesn't just play your favorites; it tries to introduce you to new things, and if you hear something you really like, you can buy it from itunes. So it's a little more exciting than listening to your ipod, where you pretty much know all the songs or artists you've uploaded.
I have four stations so far. The first focuses on my standard listening material: Aztec Camera, David Bowie, Depeche Mode, Elvis Costello, Joy Division, Lloyd Cole, New Order, Pink Floyd, The Real Tuesday Weld, The Smiths, Tears for Fears, The The, etc. (Yes, I like angsty British guy music, especially angsty British guy music from the 80s. I like other things too, but I really like that.)
To balance out the angsty british guy-ness of my main station, I also have a chick music station, which I am happy with because so far it has provided me with my most compelling new discovery: Jane Jensen. She's been around for years, but I managed to miss out on her, until now, and I totally dig her.
I also have a mellow station and a dance station. And the dance station provided me with my favorite, "Hey I do like this song!" moment: I seeded plenty of Prince and Madonna and New Order and random songs like "Rock Me Amadeus" and "99 Luft Balloons" and "The Politics of Dancing" and "Stacy's Mom" because they're all great to dance to. And I was jamming to some song I'd rather expected to here--Duran Duran or something--and all of a sudden, along comes "Free Ride" by Edgar Winter. I thought, I haven't heard this song in ages, but I do like it and it's pretty damn danceable!
I have a hard time turning it off--I just want to see what song will come up next. And if I am ambivalent about a song on one station--it doesn't quite fit my mood, or it's too familiar--I skip to the next song or switch to a different station.
The only thing I don't like about it is that every time I click on a button to say, "Hey, I do or don't like this song" I get a refreshed ad for Nashville Star with Billy Ray Cyrus, but I have figured out that ads are what make sites like this free, so I suck it up and deal with it.
If you haven't already played around with this, try it now--I really think you'll have fun.
Posted by Holly at June 10, 2008 7:27 AM
Comments
Pandora is pretty cool. More than anything else, I like being able to discover new artists. The other site I love if I want to hear something on demand is Seeqpod. It lists mp3s that are currently enabled ANYWHERE online, so it's a huge selection. Sometimes if I get a song in my head and just have to hear it, chances are I'll find it there.
Posted by: LG at June 10, 2008 11:08 PM
Hi LG--thanks for your comment. My sister told me about some songs recently and wanted to know how it was that I hadn't heard them; now I have, thanks to seeqpod.
And my apologies to my readers outside the US who couldn't access Pandora. Several wrote to tell me that it won't work elsewhere in the world, which is too bad. I hope they fix that soon.
Posted by: Holly at June 12, 2008 1:55 PM