Online Listening

Technology Report: Pandora is a neat "radio" service, and it is customized to your preferences. It is currently a favorite way for me to listen to music online.

From Pandora's website:

Ever since we started the Music Genome Project, our friends would ask: Can you help me discover more music that I'll like?

Those questions often evolved into great conversations. Each friend told us their favorite artists and songs, explored the music we suggested, gave us feedback, and we in turn made new suggestions. Everybody started joking that we were now their personal DJs.

We created Pandora so that we can have that same kind of conversation with you.

How it works: You establish basic parameters as you build one - or a dozen - "radio channels." The technology pays attention to your preferences - musical style, artists, specific songs. If you tell Pandora you don't like a particular artist or song, it will never play them again.

This is like creatikng playlists on an iPod, only the music selection is actually responding to your tastes as you listen. Fascinating!

Check it out, if you can, and tell me what you think.