Pandora may be the coolest musical thing you’ve discovered since your iPod.

Enter a favorite artist or song, and Pandora creates a “radio station” of music for you, sort of a sonic variation on Netflix recommendations. Example: My “Bruce Springsteen” station is serving up music by Billy Joel, Tom Waits, John Mellencamp, Bob Dylan, Creedence Clearwater Revival … hey, works for me! The point, though, is also to discover new music you may not have heard before. In the case of my Springsteen station, I’m getting Sister Hazel, Bodeans, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Son, Ambulance.

You’re limited to the number of songs you can skip each hour (according to music licensing issues, Pandora says), but you can also ask why a certain song is played. When I asked why it played Nick Drake’s “Tow the Line,” it said: “Based on what you’ve told us so far, we’re playing this track because it features milds rhythmic syncopation, acoustic sonority, repetitive melodic phrasing, acoustic guitar riffs, and acoustic rhythm riffs.” There are links to iTunes and Amazon, of course, in case you really like what you hear. Any marketer of new music not plugged into Pandora is missing out on a good potential sales channel.

I’m gonna have some fun playing with this. I bet you will, too.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 5th, 2005 at 9:35 am and is filed under Internet Stuff.