It takes a whole lot of well crafted web magic to impress me these days. There’s AJAX this, Ruby that, Flash apps, all sorts of crap. Most of it is kinda interesting but not entirely useful on the whole. Today, I found something that I really think is pretty slick.
Pandora by the Music Genome Project
From their site:
“Ever since we started the Music Genome Project, our friends would ask: Can you help me discover more music that I’ll like? Those questions often evolved into great conversations. Each friend told us their favorite artists and songs, explored the music we suggested, gave us feedback, and we in turn made new suggestions. Everybody started joking that we were now their personal DJs. We created Pandora so that we can have that same kind of conversation with you. ”
At the most basic level it’s like all those “find similar band sites” like last.fm and nova-something (which I can’t remember), only taken to an entire other level. You put in a band you like and create a “radio station” based on that. I chose Less Than Jake for my first test. I put in the band name and it creates a station based on not only LTJ but music thats similar, impired by, has similar characterists of and/or sounds like them. I started with Liquior Store, a song it chose randomly from the LTJ catelog. Then, it filled the “radio station” with songs and artists that it thought I might like. I can adjust the tastes and blend of songs based on yes/no votes. It’s live, streaming, and always on for me to listen to. It’s full songs, good quality, in a great mix, streamed directly from the browser. No media player involved.
In the past few hours I’ve listened to: Gogol Bordello, Flogging Molly, Voodoo Glow Skulls, Swingin’ Utters, Mustard Plug, The Pogues, The Mountain Firework Company, Spitvalves, Lawrence Arms, Streetlight Manifesto, Fall Out Boy, Operation Ivy, Pink Spiders, Kid Dynamite, and the Street Dogs. That’s a great mix. Nothing has repeated. They never picked any cheesy over played tunes. I’m really liking it.
Definatly a website to check out, especially if you want to hear some new tunes.
Recent Comments