OMG…an entire wall of CDs at my disposal yet I crave new music as if I had none. My first experience with Pandora Radio came on the heals of an article in the Washington Post back in 2005. I was hardly the earliest adopter. I visited and signed on right away. A week in the Outer Banks, NC with Pandora providing the sound track 24/7 was when the possibilities, sunk in. The tributaries feeding new music over the years had all but dried up.

1. FM had been dead for decades run by corporate robostats insisting that we WANTED to hear the same music over and over again. Who made it tired…they did. What was not played in the last 20 years is often more significant than the music that was (old school rap comes to mind) 
2. Music playing in a record store (remember these places?) or at a kiosk located in the store. Music is purchased almost exclusively on line these days. 
3. The old Napster model could not be sustained. Free music…NOT SO FAST…not without somebody getting paid (and rightly so my artist friends!). The headwaters of the new music river were flowing again.

Here it was music I had never heard before and a place to explore very corner of new music. An instant way to sample new music by setting up a personal radio station featuring an artist or song you know you like. The station then picks music to play on the station (in addition to the band(s) you chose to start the station) based on the attributes of the music (downtempo, horns, female vocals…). This is done via the Pandora - Music Genome Project®.

I have found this a tremendous improvement over an Amazon-like “since Sally and Mike bought this you might like it too” approach. This is not a knock on Jeff Bezos and friends. I have found wonderful music this way. It is a hit and miss game this way and I have whiffed more than a few times…what was I thinking when I heard that sample?

You train each of your Pandora stations as you go. Thumbs up or down. Soon it is only you to blame if you don’t like what you are hearing.

1. I have found that mixing artists that have only some qualities in common creates some magic. I began with a Chill station with Thievery Corporation as the starting point , added in some Chemical Brothers and out popped Doctor Israel (+ so many reggae artist new to my world).
2. A friend recommends a band or you want to know whether to skip the warm up band? Start a station on Pandora and see what YOU think.
3. Missed the 90’s and the entire Rap music scene? Start with an artist you do know something of and see if it becomes a passion genre or a toss out.

Coming in further posts:

1. More on Pandora…I promise!
2. Comparing Pandora, LastFM…
3. Radio Stations (brick and mortar) discoveries outside of broadcast range
4. Ways to get more Hifi out of your ipod or iphone
5. Bands I recommend on mySpace, YouTube, Facebook…

Thanks for …ah…listening. Turn it up…Way up!

TonyM_music is my life, whatever. LOL.

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