Pandora's Box

Do you love music? Of any kind? Well then check out this site.

Pandora is an internet music site that will create for you your own personal radio station based upon the artists or songs you like. The best part is... it's free. There is an option to pay which will eliminate forth coming commercials. And the pay option is relatively cheap at $36 for a year subscription.

Pandora is brought to us by the Music Genome Project (MGP). This is an extensive and on going music analysis project that has been going on for about six years. They have developed the music gene which takes into account more than popularity and record sales. It takes the music itself and gives it a type of musical genome based upon the genes that make it up. From there site - "Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony." They have taken what they have learned and created the listening console Pandora.

Type in U2 and you won't just get Coldplay, Tonic or Train you'll get bands like Murray Attaway and Weather. Who are they? I have no clue but according to the MGP they have musical genes that are similar to U2. Oh yeah some of the other bands that showed up on my U2 station were Billy Idol, Judas Priest, and Black Sabbath. Really... who would have thunk it.

Check it out. Test it. Put in some random names. It is very cool.

Here's a shout out to my little bro Kev for leading me to this site.