I Am So Glad I Opened Pandora’s Box

A little over a year ago, tired of running down the battery on my mp3 player and impatient with the collection of CDs I had brought to work, I searched Google for an internet radio site.  That is when I found Pandora.  If you’re unfamiliar with how Pandora works, it’s basically like this: you search by artist name or by song title, Pandora will then create a station based on the search and play not only that artist or song, but any other artist or song that have some of the same musical qualities.  I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical about it all, especially after creating my Prince Radio station and hearing hardly any Prince.  But I have to admit, every song that is played on any of my stations relate in some way to the named station.  I first heard The Killers on Prince Radio.  Sounds strange, I know, but it makes since the music of The Killers (especially on “Hot Fuss”) has an ’80s vibe.  At this point, I have 31 stations based on artists I love.  You can also have genre stations, of which I have a few, like Oldies Soul or Funk.  There is also a Quick Mix option, which allows you to select any number of created stations to a list, and then songs are played randomly from each select station.  That’s usually the way I listen to Pandora.  If you have friends on  Pandora, you can also listen to a mix of their created stations.  I have listened to many different types of internet radio, including LastFM and Launchcast (Yahoo!), but I have to say Pandora is my absolute favorite.  There is a thumbs-up/thumbs-down system that lets you control (somewhat) what songs will be played on your stations.  There is also an option to ”snooze” a song that you think plays too frequently.  I still bring my mp3 player to work, but for the most part I spend my day jammin’ to Pandora.  I recommend everyone give it a try.