Any Pandora users?

[cabinessence]

I've become instantly addicted to this (free and legal) 'build your own niche radio station' platform-gizmo. Actually it lets you build up to 100 stations (which you can delete and replace). The principle is 'play more like this', and what you do is insert a favorite song title or performer; the service then checks against -admittedly rather arcane/limited, but possibly  valid- musical taxonomies linked to songs that share the features of the target, and voila you get an instant playlist you're allowed to give thumbs up and down to on a song by song basis, leading to attempted refinements...and occasionally brilliant results.

One problem is licensor agreements won't allow the exact song you suggest to be the one that plays first, the template most like the rest that follow, but substitutes something similar (Just putting an artist name in is way too random for my taste since the results follow from whichever song out of the entire artist catalog drops first, but that's another story)

On the other hand, you can tinker till you get somewhere cool. I input This Whole World a few times and for band plus Brian solo versions getting nothing I wanted, but then I tried Add Some Music instead from the same record and got a stream of songs that miraculously hit that groove every time.

Right now, I'm on the Ruby Tuesday station. First track it selected was Van Dyke Parks doing "Bing Crosby"!!! Rationale, when I queried why: 'acoustic rock instrumentation, a subtle use of vocal harmony, mild rhythmic syncopation, acoustic rhythm piano, and acoustic sonority". Okay, I'll buy that . Same criteria will also get you Green Circles by Small Faces and Memoirs of a Stockbroker by Mungo Jerry...it actually makes sense of a sort.

BTW this is no advertisement. Just curious if any of you have already sampled this and figured interesting ways to jigger it to play good stuff.

URL = pandora.com 

[Lester Zombie]

I haven't heard of this before, but you've made me curious. I too would like to see what some others have to say about.

[cabinessence]

No others yet, but more extended listening and strategies.

If you go for Artist rather than Song as what guides the playlist, you do get a lot of that artist, most so if you outright reject tracks by others that don't suit what you want at all though they may semi-objectively be a match. Thus for my (Arthur Lee) Love station, Paul Macca gets the cut with "That would be something" as 'mild rhythmic syncopation. mixed electric and acoustic instrumentation, a dynamic male vocalist, and many other similarities'  (good match for one aspect of Love's output: Pandora's taxonomies seem to refer to all of Love's music in the database and supply songs to match the variety of them), whereas  Billy Joel's "On the Borderline" -which looks good on paper and fits the same graph, does not, no way, and off it goes...giving me Love playing Revelation instead, a track I'd never heard before...

I recommend this definitely, though the paradisial bliss of free stuff comes with a cost sooner or later.  Right now it's free of commercials for the no money down preview but lotsa ads are promised at some point sooner or later ('ramping up in the next few months') whereupon ad-free subscription or no cost with commercial interruptions (as with Live 365) becomes the choice  Do check it out in the meantime if you don't mind parting  with your email address, date of birth and zipcode.

[I. Spaceman]

This rules, all I did was put in Shangri-La's, now I'm getting an endless stream of killer girl sounds, including Micky Dolenz' wife Samantha Juste's amazing single "No One Needs My Love Today". Wow.

[I. Spaceman]

Guys, check this Pandora thing out. It's worth it.
I typed in I Heard her Call My Name by The Velvets, and so far I have heard this set:
Circles - Fleur De Lys
Roll With It - Oasis
We're A Happy Family - Ramones
Stutter - Elastica
Down In The Tube Station At Midnight - The Jam

Wow.

[cabinessence]

Why by Yoko Ono brought me

Three Girl Rhumba by Wire
Marquee Moon by Television
Shake Appeal by Iggy and Stooges
Bulldozer by Iggy also  (maybe he and Yoko are destined to make beautiful ugly music together: Iggy Frankenstein and his Bride?)

[I. Spaceman]

Sweet!

[Jason]

I messed around with Pandora, didn't like it too much. I've been spoiled by Real Networks' Rhapsody, but it's worth the money. $10 per month for unlimited listens is a deal and a half. Costs more to burn CDs, however.

[Evenreven]

I'm using Pandora now. Wow. I gave it two signposts of my musical appreciation: Poptones by PiL and H&V by The BBs, and so far I like everything on here.

The Animals - Baby let me take you home
Turtles - Outside chance
Sandy Salisbury - So close to heaven
Plastic Cloud - Epistle to paradise
Minutemen - Lost (live)
Shipping News - Books on trains
Nirvana - All apologies

Just wow.

[LaurieBiagini]

It's pretty amazing, isn't it?  I've discovered a bunch of great tunes this week!

[cabinessence]

Another Beta Testing still-commercial-free service trying a variation on the same is Last FM. Checking it out now. Initial results are less Frankenstein Laboratory exciting than Pandora, but even-er as a listening experience, less potential musical whiplash or deadly monotony, more like a real set of radio stations. Worth a player-download and a trial here:

www.last.fm