Pandora

Something I was going to bring up today in the 2.0 meeting was this wonderful thing called "Pandora." Have you heard of this yet? I hope you have because it has completely changed my online music listening!

It is part of the Music Listening Genome Project which seeks to determine what it is about music that certain people attach to and are repulsed by. For example, I apparently I like infectious, guitar-centered melodies, lyrics-based music with a quasi New York post-punk sound. What that means, exactly? I don't know, besides it confirming that I love R.E.M. and Ben Folds.

You create a free account and then you create a station (you can have many for all of your different moods) by entering a band or a musician that you really enjoy. The site then plays music by bands and artists that have a similar music-type breakdown. If you like the song playing you give it a thumbs up, if not, a thumbs down. This lets the project know when it is off base in its music selection and then it adjusts your preferences. The cool thing about this experiment is that the more you listen to a station, the more personalized and exact the station becomes. Then you can share it with friends or with people who enjoy the same music as you do. Also, you can bookmark songs and artist so that you can come back to them later. It is the best way I've found to expand your music repertoire for free.

I am not really sure how this could be applied to the library, but I thought that it was a very interesting project that has helped me through many hours of studying! I warn you, it is addictive!