Hey! I just discovered something very cool, big thanks to Paul from programming…
Pandora. Have you heard of this? Nope, not the first woman ever, created and gifted by all of the ancient gods (Greek Mythology).
Pandora Radio. This is a totally different story. Pandora Radio is a radio streaming application developed by the Music Genome Project. So you have to be connected (one way or another) to the Internet to use it.
The basic idea is that you choose a song or artist that you like, and Pandora compiles an indefinite playlist of songs that are musically similar. As the songs play, you give them “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” and Pandora adjusts your playlist accordingly — to add more of the songs you might enjoy, and less of those it thinks (yes, I said “thinks”) you will not.
There’s a lot of science that goes into Pandora’s choosing of your songs. Apparently, there are more than 400 musical attributes which are considered every time a song is selected. The Genome project calls these “focus traits,” and there are 2,000 of them, ranging from rhythm syncopation, key tonality, vocal harmonies and displayed instrumental proficiency. Wow!
You have two options when it comes to subscription for Pandora. I’m using the free version, because I’m cheap (and I love free stuff). While both versions are essentially the same, one has ads and the other does not, so you pick your poison — fees or ads. Recently, the company also released Pandora Mobile service for most mobile phones, but it is only available in the ad-sponsored format right now. Free is good, so I highly recommend it if your phone is supported!
Another neat Pandora feature is that, if you hear a song you really like, it gives you the option to purchase the song (or complete cd) from Amazon MP3, Amazon.com, or the iTunes Store.I haven’t explored this feature yet, but as I continue to hear new songs that are interesting to me, I may just have to!
Well, that’s all for now.
Check out Pandora here.
Have a great weekend!
