Pandora

Browsing through TIME magazine's list of "cool websites of the year" I was intrigued by the entry for Pandora. I'd briefly heard about this a while ago, but never actually investigated it properly. Now I'm hooked. The idea is that you tell it some bands and songs you like and it creates a custom radio station based on what you tell it. Don't like the song it's playing - let it know and it'll skip to the next track and play similar songs less frequently. Especially like a track - Pandora will find similar songs and play them more frequently. The more often you tell it what you do and don't like, the better the service.

Those with long memories will remember my post from last September about how I was getting stuck in a musical rut. Now I have Pandora to suggest from an increadibly wide range of music from many artists I've never heard of. It's allowed my to follow up my new found love of J-Rock (thanks to the Ouendan soundtrack) and Scandanavian rock (thanks to the Poor Rich Ones album). Thanks to Pandora, I'm going to buy albums by L'arc En Ciel and Kent. It's also nice to listen to as I type up my thesis.

The downsides aren't very many. Pandora operates via flash so there's no need to install anything. Because the music is actually licenced, you can rewind or relisten to tracks (you have to wait until they are played again) and you are only allowed a certain number of skips per hour. But, once registered you can have upto 100 different stations so this really shouldn't be a problem. After about 10 or so songs it asks you to register. Currently, it is only available for US residents but the makers clearly don't care about this as the only proof they require is a valid US zip code - not overly difficult to get off the net or even just make up.