pandora; the music box

[wirbel]

Probably one of the best internet radio inventions is pandora at http://www.pandora.com/ a very cool site!

It offers a simple menu where you can type in your favourite artist. It then automatically plays songs from this artist but also artists who sound like this; if you add more artists as a channel, you can also shuffle these channels, so you hear a more variety of songs.

I think this works great at work; let everyone type in their favourite artist, put the 'quickmix' on channel shuffle and everybody will hear something they like And also a great way to explore new music that's in your taste


edit: after a while the music stops and you have to register; with a US zipcode only; if you need one: 90210

[adia]

Hey, I wanted to post this!

I just typed my german zip-code... it worked

I'd really like to know where I'd live in the US...

But it's a really great site. I like most of the songs it plays, although I think that the songs on the stina-channel aren't as great as hers... but, as I said, it's fun to listen anyway.

cheers, adia

[sound world]

I'd be interested to know what's on the 'Stina-channel'.Most of what usually passes for 'Stina-like' misses the mark for me,being insipid,lacking in lyrical/musical edge,etc.

[wirbel]

hey adia; good to see you
well, i've entered the zip of Independence, MO since i've been there the most times and i remembered the zip
We played it today at work with everybody entering their favourite artist and it worked quite well; really good to get rid of stupid radio they play at some companies with all this 80's crap music you hear every day and twice an hour
and dave let me know what you think of the stina sound-a-likes

[red]

I'd be interested to know what's on the 'Stina-channel'.Most of what usually passes for 'Stina-like' misses the mark for me,being insipid,lacking in lyrical/musical edge,etc.

I agree. The first few on my Stina channel today were the Cardigans, Missy Higgins, Katie Todd, the Concretes and Cat Power. Which is a bit of an odd mix - and probably mostly superficially Stina-like. I enjoyed listening to them, though...

The flaw I've found in Pandora is that some artists seem to be nodes - and so will dominate a particular channel. e.g. my attempts at a Spacemen 3/Stereolab/Stina/John Coltrane channel ended up almost entirely with Coltrane-like jazz..

[sound world]

Tried it out after someone I did a gig with today was raving about it (he'd made a Soft Machine radio)
That's odd,my Stina radio ALSO had Cardigans, Missy Higgins, the Concretes,Cat Power and some other stuff-Natalie Merchant,Minnie Driver,Christine Fell,all of which completely failed to inspire me (except one bit of Cardigans).
But I tried a few other things,got some good leads from The Bad Plus station-although,like you say,Red,the resident 'node' was Brad Mehldau.
Disgusted that Pandora had nothing by Michel Petrucciani or Dissidenten.

[RobB]

I'm quite familiar with (and very much like ) Natalie Merchant but other than they are both females I can't see any other connection between Natalie and Stina.

[paul-pgss]

I'm quite familiar with (and very much like ) Natalie Merchant but other than they are both females I can't see any other connection between Natalie and Stina.

Agreed. I really like natalie merchant but she has nothing in common with stina.

[sound world]

It's more to do with how Pandora defines the music in question-like...major key tonality,strong female vocalist etc.
I found their description of Stina's music to be wide of the mark-but it's because they only seem to have TWIS to hand.If they had all the albums,they would be scratching their heads for a catch-all definition.

[wirbel]

In the category -interesting channels to explore- I would enter Nellie McKay and check that out; came across her in the playlist mix and it's funny to listen to