Today I was supposed to do a lot of things. But, like many days, I get caught up in something else music related that is just too damn interesting and addicting to put on hold.
Today it was www.pandora.com. The site is a “radio” player that creates an online music station based around the music preferences you enter into it. These preferences are honed as you type more artist names into your created station. It will then plays songs by your selected bands and other bands it thinks you will like.
And it will explain to you why it chose these new songs, saying things like:
“Based on what you’ve told us so far, we’re playing this track because it features punk roots, a subtle use of vocal harmony, mild rhythmic syncopation, varying tempo and time signatures and demanding instrumental part writing”\
This all seems pretty damn cool to me, and once you register - its free - you can create more than one station.
So i spent this afternoon creating 3 stations. I created an indie rock station (broken social scene, bloc party, wolf parade), and punk station (taking back sunday, brand new, head automatica), and a rap station (Kanye, Rhymefest, Jay-Z).
I’ve been listening to these stations since and have come up with some initial pros and cons.
Pro:
- Excellent in theory
- Lists random obscure bands I didn’t think it would
- The ability to have more than one station
- You can bookmark songs you like to listen to again
- backstage feature that allows you to get band and ticket
info
Cons:
- So far all day it has not suggested a song or band I didn’t
enter that I’ve liked. I’d say this is an issue
- You can’t fast forward at will due to copyright deals
- You cant go back and play previously played tracks even
though you can see them.
- Yeah, still haven’t heard a new song I like yet.
Pandora does have potential though. It should also expand and refine its judgment as more people sign up and create stations.
check it out for yourself: www.pandora.com
daily addictions