Radio with a twist

Posted on | March 5, 2009 | 2 Comments

Remember when you loved your radio so much that you slept with it? Dedicated songs to the kid down the block that you had a crush on? Called in to request your favorite song? Entered all the contests and prayed nightly that you would win those tickets?

I don’t know about you, but those days are long gone for me. The only time I listen to the radio anymore is in the car … occasionally. I like NPR and the public stations, but don’t really rely on them for my music anymore.

Enter Pandora. While it’s not really a radio station, it kind of is. But it’s your station. Or stations I should say. It is a huge database of artists and songs, from Top 10 to the fairly obscure. You select an artist to start a station and using their music genome, Pandora starts playing other songs that you may like. The whole thing is based on your freedom to like or dislike a song, which further narrows your genetic preferences for that particular station.

Here are some of the things I really like about Pandora.

I can sit down at the computer to work, pick one of my stations, work for hours, listening the whole time and not have to change a cd or playlist.
I’ve been exposed to artists that I wouldn’t necessarily check out…and liked them.
You can create a ton of stations that all begin with one of your favorite artists.
I can pick my station depending on my mood.
With a Pandora tab open, I can be working on other tabs and still hear my station.
I can share stations with other Pandora users.
It’s free, easy to use and so far has impressed me with the depth of it’s catalog.

I have been totally happy with my experience so far, and I haven’t even experienced all that Pandora offers. There are occasional commercials, but it’s a pretty small price to pay for this free service.

Let me know what you think.

Comments

2 Responses to “Radio with a twist”

Tony Larsen
March 6th, 2009 @ 5:06 AM

I love pandora. About six months ago I kinda got tired of it because they kept playing the same songs – however – They are playing new songs and the quickmix feature allows me to mix red hot chili peppers, ani difranco, john coltrane, and wilco all together. I love it. I have been using it for about a year now and if they keep improving the song selection, I will keep listening. Oh and I have discovered many new artists that I didnt even know existed from this site. It is one of my favorites online.
Cat Johnson
May 21st, 2009 @ 8:44 PM

I’ve found that the more artists you add to a station, the less likely a song is to repeat. But there must be some business arrangement that particular artists and/or tracks are rotated in more frequently.

House of Cat

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Radio with a twist

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