Here is an online radio station (http://pandora.com/) that you train to play music you like. You get to discover new songs and artists in the same styles. You need to create an account. Just plug in any plausible zip code if you live outside the US.

Since it's only songs available in the US, it gives a quite distorted reflection of my tastes. No artists singing in French, no Buena Vista Social Club, no Amalia Rodrigues, no Swingle Singers. I did manage to seed the Modern Jazz Quartet and the Be Good Tanyas.

Pierre

Pierre!

I did read this when you wrote it, but didn't check out the link. When I found Pandora later, I loved it -- I should have just followed your guide when you suggested it -- I could have been listening to the music I love longer!

Thanks! :)

You can also try www.last.fm - works fine for me.

great finds. am now using the pandora freebie. thanks folks! :)

craig

Pierre, ditto what CJ said. I just now went there, and it's wonderful.

found a limitiation on pandora. cant complain; it is free, but you can only skip X number of songs per hour and then you get a message that you cant skip any more right now due to their licensing. ah well.

also, can we post our station names and have others find/listen? seems to be an email thing to do this, but i was wonering if you could just post your station name and let others go there.

craig

found a limitiation on pandora Yes, Craig, it's free :happy: and the limitation only lasts for a few minutes. I just kept creating new stations and deleting them when they didn't pan out. Who was the first artist you requested? Mine was Michael Buble'.

Edit: I made a discovery. Our electricity surges off fairly often, so I've got a back up battery which keeps the computer on, but I always lose my cable connection temporarily. Well, it surged off, and the battery beeped just after I had turned on my "radio station" at Pandora.com, and I figured, well that's it for the music, but it kept playing, uninterrupted, going from one song to the next.

cat,

my first artist was neil diamond. he's always been a favorite of mine. the rest is an eclectic mix of similar artists and music. i call my station 'craig's easy listening' :) but maybe i'll rename it to 'music to photo edit by'.

as for your internet connection going out and the music still playing, that must mean they are pre-loading a certain number of selections. i also believe you could bypass some of the limits by resetting your cookies. no doubt some of the info is being kept there. but oh well, it's not a biggie. i just found it a bit odd that that would be one of the limits on this thing.

as for creating other stations, havent tried that yet. does that get you past that one limit i mentioned in any way?

i also noticed that if you open the pandora site with more than one browser window, you get another song playing on that browser different from the one you already have opened. so, that would be another way of bypassing a given song :)

craig

Craig, right now my stations are Alison Krauss, Nickel Creek, Emmylou Harris, and Michael Buble. I've deleted a few that didn't go in the direction I wanted. When I reach my limit of refusals on one station, I just switch over to another. Have you also noticed that you can save a song you really like to your favorites list? I'm enjoying this so much because there are no radio stations around here that play my kind of music, and Pandora is introducing me to so many artists I didn't know about. I think that's what they had in mind :)

cat,

ok, that sounds like it shld work ok :)

alison kraus is good. and that reminds me of another i havent put on my station yet, lee ann rimes. i fell in love with her voice the first time i heard it.

yup, saw the favorites thing, but havent used it yet. does that list exist for each station separately or does it span over everything for the one user?

as for radio stations that play what i like, forget it. i quit listening to actual radio quite a while ago. well, mostly. but i do like this pandora thing. i mean what station would play everything from bach to andy williams to deep purple and so on. you have to remember that i grew up with tv when it actually had real variety shows :)

and yes, i've heard a few new (new to me) artists that i've enjoyed. i've currently got a vince gil paused. great voice.

i've been a tiny bit disappointed by not being able to find one or two artists i like. dick glass was one and ed ames is another. oh, and frank fontaine. frank fontaine was the guy on the red skelton show that played in a regular skit as a janitor in a bar skit. he had an amazing voice.

i just wonder if they're making any money off this thing.

craig

You know they're making money. I figured it had something to do with demographics, since they ask for our zip code & age, probably selling our preferences. But in this case, it's a win/win situation.

I never listen to real radio anymore, either, but I've wished there were a way for me to discover current artists that I like, and now there is :) I had never heard of the Cox Family or Kasey Chambers or Blue Highway, but now I find I really like their music a lot.

Yes, the favorites list is all inclusive, and I was hoping I could go to it and play all the songs there, but it doesn't seem to be set up that way, just a way for you to print off a list of favorites.

And yes, there are some artists who are in short supply. I wanted a station of Andrea Bocelli, and he was only featured on 2 songs with other singers.
Hopefully, when an artist is requested enough, they add him or her to their repertoire. :) I did create one of Enya, whom I've loved for 15 years, great music to paint by.

cat,

yes, i was hoping the favorites list would be a playable list also. oh well. perhaps, though, one could accumulate favorites and then make a special station just off of that. you'd still get other artists, but it might 'tune' your station better.

also, i wish there were a way to taper off other artists a bit. i plug in someone i like and get what seems like about a 3 to 1 of other artists to my artist. i know this is a promotional thing and that they want to introduce us to other music, but to me it would be smarter to make it 3 to 1 in favor of the artists we like. that way we'd stay interested longer. but again, oh well. someday, perhaps, when i'm running the universe i can have everything as i want it :)

craig

someday, perhaps, when i'm running the universe i can have everything as i want it Craig, when you do take over the universe, don't forget me. I have a few requests to make :)

Yes, I had the same thoughts about too few songs by the artist I requested, but so far it's fun to play with. Don't know how long it will hold my ADHD interest.

I am at the moment giving Pandora a try out, And i am testing it on some of the newer groups in the uk at the moment ( well maybe a year or two old, like Killers, Kaiser Chiefs, & Coldplay yes i do know my age but they are good ! ! ! !) will try some of the older stuff later, and so will hubby when he gets his hands on it, Which will mean less time for me on the pc, second thoughts might keep quiet about it ! ! ! ! !

Palms

Sold It is just playing my favorite killers track "all these things that i've done "

I've gotten some very nice stations out of Pandora. Then again, I've also gotten stations that only play the same 5 songs over and over :)

Overall I'm very pleased with it. I just wish it could stream to Winamp.

Hey. This is very cool. Thanks, Doug, for resurrecting this thread. I hadn't heard of Pandora before. I have to remember that I'm at work (listening with earphones) and can't be sitting here tapping my feet or singing along.

dc

Yay... well it played straight off the bat a Pink Floyd song that I haven't heard for ages (and practically never on radio) so I am chuffed :bigthmb: