I've been using an online radio station called www.last.fm recently. They have a pluggin for iTunes that sends every song you listen to to their server. They keep a history of what you listen, and make suggestions without any additional input from you. For free they will let you listen to music that other people listen to that have similar tastes to you. For $3 a month they will let you listen to what you listen to, what you've never listened to but might like, and what someone else listens to. I haven't tried this yet as I have been quite satisfied with the free station. They let you mark your favorites, and let you block music you don't like. They also let you skip tracks you don't like on the fly, which is key. http://www.last.fm/user/Menntul/ Ben Liyanage ben at smartankgroup.com 410.336.2464 _____ From: hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net [mailto:hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net] On Behalf Of Will Loving Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2006 9:15 PM To: Hidden-Tech Listserv Subject: [Hidden-tech] Pandora's box Dear friends, If you like to listen to music while you work on your computer, this is for you. I've recently been listening to a Podcast called "Inside the Net" and last week's episode profiled an amazing free internet music service called "Pandora". Pandora allows you to specify artists and songs that you like and then it creates a free "radio station" that streams you music similar to what you specified, often from artists you've never heard of. It's ability to find music that I like is nothing short of amazing and you can have up to 100 "station" with different sets of preferred music types. The key word here is "similar". Unlike Amazon and iTunes, Pandora does not select things you might like based on what other listeners have listened to, which is essentially a popularity contest and leaves out many lesser known artists. Instead, Pandora has the host of volunteers that categorize music on over 400 characteristics - there are 30 characteristics for vocals alone. Each volunteer is usually a degreed music scholar or professional who has also undergone an additional 40 hours of training with Pandora. Once determined, these characteristics create a musical "DNA" for each piece of music and become part of the "Music Genome Project". When you tell Pandora that you like a mix of styles that include Dave Brubeck, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and Whitney Huston, Pandora will create a playlist of songs that have similar musical DNA, whether the artist is well-known or not. Over time you can refine your preferred styles even more by indicating whether you did or did not like each song. You can skip songs but you can't easily replay them, though if you mark them as a favorite, they will eventually replay. Their library of available music is expanding rapidly and they have agreements with most record labels. They also actively solicit independent artists. The only requirement for independents is that the music be available on a CD and have a registered UPC code. Pandora is available at: http://www.pandora.com The "Inside the Net" Podcast episode (006) with the interview with Tim Westergren of Pandora is available from within iTunes or at: http://odeo.com/audio/584961/view Will Will Loving, President Dedication Technologies, Inc. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- DEDICATION TECHNOLOGIES, INC. - Developers of StudioSchool Pro - Professional FileMaker Pro Database Development For Non-Profits, Business, and Education ----------------------------------- 7 Coach Lane Amherst, MA 01002-3304 USA Tel:1 413 253-7223 (GMT -5) Fax:1 206 202-0476 will at dedicationtechnologies.com http://studioschoolpro.com -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.hidden-tech.net/pipermail/hidden-discuss/attachments/20060123/8767a47c/attachment.html