Friday, July 16, 2010

A Musical Find - Pandora

I've been so busy and distracted lately, I nearly forgot that my word this year was "Find." But in my need to calm my nerves and relieve anxiety about changes at work, I decided to find a music station that I could stream through the Internet and wouldn't have to to think too much about. I used to do that through my Sirius Radio but they don't let you do it anymore without charging extra. Forget that. I'm not paying extra for music. And I don't have time to fool with selecting and loading my favorite tunes onto an MP3 player. So I searched and FOUND a wonderful alternative. It's called Pandora.

Since I have ecletic musical taste, it's hard to find just one radio station that contains it all. But with this Pandora system, it KNOWS or learns that I LOVE folk music, such as Donovan, Carole King, James Taylor, Peter Paul and Mary, the 1960's type of folk; as well as the new Indie Music like Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. Combine that with that fact that I dig R&B, some Blues, lots of 1970's music, Motown classics and some good ole Frank Sinata. It "knows" that I don't like Bob Dylan, can live two lifetimes without Elvis. It just has me pegged amazingly well and fast. It's like magic. Weird.

So you want to give it a try too? You can start by going to that Pandora link (above), then entering one or a series of your favorite music groups and/or songs. The free audio starts streaming and as you like/dislike songs that it picks for you based upon the favorites you've listed, the software finds other artists and/or songs that have similar musical qualities you might like. I have been LOVING this system and after trying it for a week, the software is refining itself to my tastes more and more. I am finding such wonderful music without having to mix it myself.

Music especially tailored and customized for your listening pleasure. Amazing. Try it and you may be pleasantly surprised too.

3 comments:

teabird said...

I love Pandora! I've discovered so many artists through the algorithm they use to create my stations. Of course, sometimes it goes wildly astray - like when I said I liked "John Barleycorn" by Traffic it started to steer into rather heavy rock... I also have a Donovan station.

Rebecca said...

awesome!!! gonna check out link! thanks for heads up and glad you're finding again ;)

Techwriter said...

I too love Pandora. I listen to it on my phone. I also like Jango and Rhapsody which are very similar. Pandora is my fav though.