Pandora.com — Thinking Outside the Box

If you’re older than 30 (maybe 19), music radio sucks. You have a few choices:

• Listen to the new “music.” Good luck finding a radio station with a playlist larger than 10 songs, or that plays music. (Is my age showing?…)
• Listen to a “classic rock” station. This isn’t without its pitfalls, though. How many times can you bear to hear Stairway to Heaven? Besides, isn’t there any good new music?
• Subscribe to satellite radio. Actually, I don’t know if this is any good. I would hope so, with the number of stations. I have a hard time paying a subscription for something that should be free. I don’t even have cable. Why would I pay for radio?
• Find an internet radio station. But where to start?

Here’s where: Pandora. Based on the Music Genome Project, it classifies music according to hundreds of attributes. You create a music station by selecting an artist or song. Pandora will then play other music having the same attributes. You can select more songs and/or artists to refine your station.

So far, I’ve had better luck creating a station by choosing songs instead of artists. Maybe, it’s because the artists I’ve selected play wide ranges of music. Your mileage may vary.

Pandora is incredibly responsive. In the past 24 hours, I’ve received two e-mails answering my questions and suggestions. I hope they survive.

Oh, by the way. It doesn’t cost anything. They are advertising supported. For three dollars a month, you can turn off the ads. The ads don’t pop over what I’m doing, so I don’t see a reason to pay to eliminate them.

Give them a listen.