Pandora and her box of goodies

So, coming up with a topic to blog on once a week is, well, rather difficult. I am in amazement that there are those out there who blog just about every day, or more than once a day - wow.

This week started off crazy, but ended well. I find myself with a glass of wine from a local vintner, hoping my daughter decides to fall asleep, listening to my Ulrich Schnauss station on Pandora. And let me say, this is a good way to end the week.

First, if you haven't had the pleasure of interacting with Pandora, then well, take a moment, check it out. Not only is it FREE (which is amazing in and of itself), but it is so intuitive and user friendly that it has drastically changed my radio/music listening habits. Pandora is the result of the Music Genome Project. And let me tell you, their database is amazingly complex and just wow.

I'll admit that I am an info junkie. It is after all, my number one strength (or in some cases weakness); but I am really excited about the fact that someone has created a database that compiles hundreds of characteristics for millions of songs.

What is incredible to me is that it learns my likes, so songs and/or styles that I've marked as yes show up on other stations - but not in an annoying way. Is it weird that my musical wants are so well understood by an algorithm? But seriously, you type in the name of an artist or song that you want to hear similar music to, and voila, you get endless hours of music.

If you are already a Pandora fan, share some of your favorite stations with me. Its like the new version of the mix tape!

Before I forget, you must needs watch Ira Glass's This American Life. This is one of my favorite radio shows, and the TV version is perfectly, wonderfully the same interesting stories, only visually.