Oh man, I hate it when the brilliance of someone else so obviously outshines my own. I mean it happens all the time, but this one just got me really steamed. Why didn’t I think of this?

I have spoken to a few folks about how I found it really hard to find new music that I liked. Commercial radio is so terrible I can’t even listen to it, although there are a few gems on there at times. If I don’t get a recommendation from a friend I just don’t find out about stuff. I’m sure it’s that way with most of you… or am I just too damn old? Anyway, give this a try, I love it.

It’s called Pandora. I have never heard of anything like it, to be honest. You get to play 10 hours worth of music for free before they make you pay, so there’s lots of room for fun. Anyway, it starts by asking for a song or artist that you want to find more music like and then it just keeps going. Once you give it a few things to go on, it starts suggesting music that is similar to the stuff you started with. If you click the “Why did you play this song?” link, you will get an answer like: “We’re playing this track because it features mild rhythmic syncopation, major key tonality, mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation, etc.” Holy crap.

It’s like a personal radio station. It keeps the history of what you have listened to so you can remind yourself of that excellent song, or just buy the darn thing right then from iTunes.

Frigging brilliant. I listened for literally 15 minutes and found 4 new bands I had never heard of before that I liked. This is not a paid advertisement, btw.