Pandora

I rediscovered Pandora, an internet radio site, yesterday. And I couldn't be more thrilled.

Back when I first heard about it a year ago or so, I dabbled a bit. The idea is that you plug in an artist you like, and you can create a channel that plays similar music or music from similar artists. Hard to tell the difference sometimes. I didn't really go any further though, because I generally don't like to keep music playing on my laptop while I'm doing other things. I can have music on in the background on an iPod or stereo or TV, but having it on in the background on the computer itself bothers me a bit. Maybe because the speakers on my laptop aren't that great to begin with.

Anywho.

Yesterday I found that Pandora was offered as a channel on our Roku player, a wireless device hooked up to our television - mostly used to play Netflix Instant streaming titles. It's a free service and the setup was no hassle at all. After setting up a new "channel" on the Pandora site with artists like The Kings of Leon, Tom Waits, Loudon Wainwright III and Bruce Springsteen (for Gia), I was off and running.

I listened to it in the background most of the day while I was working and I was really impressed with the artists and songs that the site picked for us. Some of them were very well-known while others were obscure as all hell. Citizen Cope, Todd Snider, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, John Prine, etc..

I think I've finally found "it" after all these years. A place, gasp, where I can listen to new* music. Amazing!

Do you do Pandora? Maybe you should.

*new to me, at least

UPDATE: I just found out that Pandora is only free for the first 40 hours of use each month.  After that it's $0.99 for unlimited play for the rest of the month.  Still a pretty good deal. - Earl

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Note: Remember to play the Badgerdaddy Trivia Challenge every day. Bring on the new stuff!