Just like any other teenager, I love music. Whenever I’m on the computer, I’m listening to something. In fact, right now I’m listening to some music while I write this entry. Unfortunately, I listen to music so much that sometimes I’m just sick of what’s in my iTunes list. That’s where Pandora comes in.
Pandora is an online music service which aims to help you enjoy and find new music. It’s basically a flash based audio player, but it has a twist. Pandora is linked into The Music Genome Project, which listens to songs and tags the songs by musical qualities. Why is that beneficial to you? Because, all you have to do is type in an artist or song and Pandora can easily find other artists with similar musical traits. Do you like ska? Pandora has it. Rap? Pandora has it. Any genre I didn’t mention? Pandora has it. The Music Genome Project allows you to make Pandora what you want.
I’ve been using Pandora for about two months now and everyday I’m impressed with the service. There are just several things which continue to draw me back to their site. First of all, unlike some services, Pandora has major artists in their playlists. Second, Pandora has obscure music also. Believe it or not, I was able to find some of the indie bands in my area. That is just impressive. Finally, Pandora has turned me on to several bands that I’ve never even heard of before. I probably wouldn’t have found those bands without Pandora’s help.
If you’re a music junkie like myself, I highly recommend you check out Pandora. You’ll find yourself enjoying music more because not only are you listening to the music you love, but your listening to a wide variety of it, so you never get tired of listening.
3 Comments
I used to be a Pandora junkie like you, but now it’s http://www.last.fm for me all the way! I’m totally sold for their service, it outclasses Pandora a billion-gazillion times.
“Any genre I didn’t mention? Pandora has it. ”
Wrong. Pandora doesn’t have classical.
The other problem with Pandora is that it bases the attributes it evaluates on genre, i.e., it uses a different list attribues for hip-hop, rock, jazz, etc. This means
1. It has to use the same genre pigeonhole its listeners do to work. But different people have different opinions about what genre someone belongs in. What genre is Santana - Latin? Jazz? Rock? How about the Clash - Rock? Alternative? Punk? - I’ve seen each one applied to them. How about Bela Fleck? He’s won Grammies in pop, jazz, country, and classical, so what genre does that make him? genre’s are stupid; music is music, genre’s are all in your head.
2. They can’t handle fusion artists, house mix, and other stuff that crosses musical boundaries.
“I used to be a Pandora junkie like you, but now it’s http://www.last.fm for me all the way! I’m totally sold for their service, it outclasses Pandora a billion-gazillion times.”
Apples and oranges. That’s like saying you used to drive a Toyota Camry to work now you’re a vegetarian.
Last.FM and Pandora are two different things, so you can’t compare them. We subscribe to Pandora AND Rhapsody, and we have 1300-CD music collection on our networked HD, AND we listen to Internet radio. Rhapsody is more similar to Last.FM except that you can play any track they have on demand any time, and they have practically everything.
Pandora is the front end for the Music Genome Project - it’s based on an entirey different theoretical concept than Last.FM; it’s not a musical social networking thingy like last.fm.
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