If you’re not, you should be using Pandora. Pandora is internet radio from the Music Genome Project. The Project set out to identify attributes of songs, hundreds of them, that form the song’s gene. The result is an offering of virtually limitless music based on your preferences.
I have been enjoying Pandora through my browser for some time now. I listen as I work to songs that I like as if I had my own radio station. You pick an artist that you want and Pandora will immediately begin playing a song from that artist. From that point Pandora plays songs from other artists based on the research of the Project that it thinks you will like. You can give the song a thumbs up that will then be used to further tailor music to your taste or alternatively give it a thumbs down and that song will not be played again. You can also choose to do nothing and the song will continue in the rotation of that particular “station”. Another option is to ask that any given song not be played for a month if you get tired of it but don’t want to banish it forever.
This power has now hit the iPhone thanks to the opening of Apple’s App Store. The App Store along with the addition of v.2.0 of the iPhone OS gives iPhone users the ability to install third-party apps on the phone. The Pandora app just happens to be free (and free of ads at the moment—which is at least part of what supports it on the desktop) although most require a modest fee. All your stations you listen to in the browser version appear on the phone once you login.
I don’t think they could have done a better job implementing Pandora on the iPhone and everyone else seems to agree. Web stats show that Pandora is seeing a new user every 2 seconds. Not bad at all.
