{"id":668,"date":"2005-12-08T19:04:00","date_gmt":"2005-12-08T19:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davetraynor.com\/wp2\/2005\/12\/08\/now-heres-pretty-cool-music-service\/"},"modified":"2016-10-29T05:50:56","modified_gmt":"2016-10-29T05:50:56","slug":"now-heres-pretty-cool-music-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davetraynor.com\/wp2\/2005\/12\/08\/now-heres-pretty-cool-music-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Now here’s a pretty cool music service"},"content":{"rendered":"

In recent months, I’ve been having a blast discovering lots of new music, especially what is called podsafe music<\/a> by artists who are letting their music be played by podcasters.<\/p>\n

But I admit that I also like to listen to lots of music that isn’t “podsafe.” In fact, my Ipod is full of all the copyrighted stuff I’ve collected over the years.<\/p>\n

So I was really excited to hear about a new service that’s up and running called Pandora<\/a>. It’s essentially an on-line radio service, but you can create your own, personalized stations, tailored to present music you like.<\/p>\n

The format is deceptively simple, but it really works. If you don’t believe me, just try it out for yourself. Just go to the website<\/a> and type in the name of an artist, or a song that you like. Then the site will start playing music that matches your preferences.<\/p>\n

How does it do that? That’s the really cool part. The site is based on the work done by a dedicated bunch of folks who have been working on something called The Music Genome project<\/a>. Their goal is to break down music into essential elements in such a way that you can identify which songs will be attractive to which people.<\/p>\n

But like I said, the details are less important than the end result. And the result is — it really works. The online service lets you create up to 20 personalized radio stations. You have to register on the service, but it’s not a problem and it’s available for free. There is a Premium edition, without any advertising, but the ads are not really a problem. After all, it’s the music you’re interested in.<\/p>\n

Oh, one more thing. If you’re not a US resident, you’re technically not allowed to use the service, according to the licensing arrangement the site has with the copyright owners. But as long as you don’t tell anyone I told you, there is an easy way around that requirement.<\/p>\n

When you get to the part of the registration process that asks for a valid US Zip code, just go here<\/a>, enter the name of any US city, and you’ll get a valid Zip code. Then just copy that back into the Pandora site, and you’re off and streaming.<\/p>\n

And since it’s the holiday season, you should know that you can create a holiday music station <\/a>really easily. Here’s what the site says about that:<\/p>\n

To hear holiday music on Pandora, just start by entering the name of a favorite holiday song (for example, “Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow”). We’ll then ask you to pick from a list of artists that we know performed that song. Pick your favorite version and we’ll create a station that will play other similar holiday music. While we’re not able to play that exact song immediately, it will play on your station eventually so keep listening!<\/p>\n

If you’d rather start from an artist, just enter the artist’s name followed by the word holiday (for example, “Nat King Cole Holiday”). We’ll then use that input to build a holiday station based on the musical qualities of that performer’s holiday
classics.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you’re looking for something nice to listen to at your desk filled with stuff you like, give Pandora a try.<\/p>\n

Update – Dec 21 — I’m not the only one that loves this site. Here’s a detailed review <\/a>by Tonya Engst from the Tidbits site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In recent months, I’ve been having a blast discovering lots of new music, especially what is called podsafe music by artists who are letting their music be played by podcasters. But I admit that I also like to listen to lots of music that isn’t “podsafe.” In fact, my Ipod is full of all the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p88Hib-aM","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davetraynor.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davetraynor.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davetraynor.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davetraynor.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davetraynor.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/davetraynor.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1639,"href":"https:\/\/davetraynor.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions\/1639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davetraynor.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davetraynor.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davetraynor.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}