Website Wednesday!

          

Thanks to my mother-in-law, I have been introduced to a cool website: Pandora.com, which is an internet radio site. That may not sound so exciting to you, but wait! "It's a new kind of radio... stations that play only the music you like"!

It's so simple... first you must create a log-in. (Don't worry, they don't ask for anything too personal here... no credit card, no blood type, etc...) After you have your log-in, you're ready to go. Select "create a new station" and a window will pop up for you to enter a song title or artist name. The site will then search for songs that match your search as well as songs that are similar to your selection. If at any time, there is a song playing on your station that you don't care for, just delete it. So, I created a John Mayer station, did a search for John Mayer in creating my new station, and I now have a station called John Mayer that plays songs by John Mayer, Matchbox Twenty, Maroon 5 and other artists that fit within the same genre of John Mayer's songs. I now have several different stations created and can listen to them individually or select "Quick Mix" and Pandora will shuffle through all my stations.

From the company's website:

When was the last time you fell in love with a new artist or song?

At Pandora, we have a single mission: To play music you'll love - and nothing else.

To understand just how we do this, 

and why we think we do it really, really well, 

you need to know about the Music Genome Project®.

Since we started back in 2000, we have been hard at work on the Music Genome Project. It's the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken. Together our team of fifty musician-analysts has been listening to music, one song at a time, studying and collecting literally hundreds of musical details on every song. It takes 20-30 minutes per song to capture all of the little details that give each recording its magical sound - melody, harmony, instrumentation, rhythm, vocals, lyrics ... and more - close to 400 attributes! We continue this work every day to keep up with the incredible flow of great new music coming from studios, stadiums and garages around the country.

With Pandora you can explore this vast trove of music to your heart's content. Just drop the name of one of your favorite songs or artists into Pandora and let the Genome Project go. It will quickly scan its entire world of analyzed music, almost a century of popular recordings - new and old, well known and completely obscure - to find songs with interesting musical similarities to your choice. Then sit back and enjoy as it creates a listening experience full of current and soon-to-be favorite songs for you.

You can create as many "stations" as you want. And you can even refine them. If it's not quite right you can tell it so and it will get better for you.

The Music Genome Project was founded by musicians and music-lovers. We believe in the value of music and have a profound respect for those who create it. We like all kinds of music, from the most obtuse bebop, to the most tripped-out drum n bass, to the simplest catchy pop tune. Our mission is to help you connect with the music YOU like.

No commercials, no unwanted songs, 

easy filtering for younger ears...

Happy listening!