Sometimes I’m so far from being an early adopter that I’m a little embarassed. Well, thanks to Richard, I may finally be sliding into the realm of online music. While visiting New Orleans, Richard told me and Scot about Pandora Internet Radio, a nifty little service created by the folks who are responsible for the Music Genome Project. Basically, you enter the music you like into a playlist, either by artist or by song, and using the Amazon.com recommendation model, Pandora will play your favorites and offer up suggestions of other artists who fit your taste. So while it’s great fun to hear Pizzicato Five’s “The Night is Still Young,” segue into Fleetwood Mac’s “Over My Head,” I’ve also been hearing some interesting new music by artists I’ve never heard of before. Obviously there are some misses as well, especially with my first attempt to build a radio station and just tossing artists I like on willy-nilly with no common style.
The categories are interesting… it’s quite true that I enjoy music that features a subtle use of vocal harmony and mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation, but I don’t think I’ve ever put it that way. The biggest problem is the selection of artists provided. Many of my favorites, like Emm Gryner, for instance, are not listed, probably because their music isn’t available through itunes? Hopefully that will improve, but it will be a stumbling block in my enjoyment eventually if lots of my faves are unavailable. Naturally, the idea is for you to buy the music you hear through Amazon or itunes, and perhaps that will happen next. In the meantime, I’m actually listening to music off the computer while I work… something I don’t usually do.
What’s next? An MP3 player?