Radio, You Are Dead To Me

At a certain point you have probably found that the novelty of shuffling through whatever N-amount of MP3s you have stashed on your iPod starts to wear a little thin. And if, like me, you think that most of the playlisted music you hear pumped out on daytime radio at the office is Not Your Cup Of Tea. Then the question is, where do you go to find new sounds? You really have to try out Pandora. I have gotten great enjoyment from this online music discovery service in the last week. Basically this is roll-your-own radio.

I will not bore you with the geeky details behind the Music Genome Project, which are actually very cool (you can read about them at the Pandora site). Just dive straight in by typing in the name of a song or artist that you like, it will start playing similar music and it guides you through a very intuitive process – the rest of it will make sense as you progress through the service.

Attention Conservation Notice: this website can be pretty addictive. I tend to leave it playing in the background all day. Also, the fact that you can purchase any of the music you stumble upon in iTunes or on Amazon could potentially burn a hole in your pocket if you do start to discover lots of interesting new music...

You may also learn something about yourself. I did not know that I preferred music with “demanding part instumentation, subtle use of vocal counterpoint, major key harmony, repetitive melodic phrasing and emphasis on studio production”. I guess I am just that sort of guy.