Pandora

Posted by ryan at 01:59 PM in music . | 5 Comments

Pandora is an interesting site to help you find new music based on your current tastes. It is part of the music genome project, a project that set out to break down songs in to their basic components (music genes) in order to compare music. The idea is to find music that possesses many of the same "genes" as the music you listen to rather than just suggest music that falls under the same category.

How it works: name a band or song you like and then Pandora will create a playlist of songs for you to listen to with information about each song and artist you are listening to. I've been playing around with it quite a bit and it does well regardless of what genre of music I throw at it; it forms many suggestions and gives you a lot to listen to whether you ask it for Modest Mouse or for Biggie. Since it is comparing "genes", it can also explain why it thinks you should enjoy each of the suggestions it is giving. Like Tivo, you can tell it whether or not you liked the suggestions.