Friday, November 6, 2009

Free Music - While You Prepare for Your Holidays

It's that time of year when many of us are:
a) Seeing the holidays coming full force.
b) Wondering how we can save a few dollars.
c) Needing to take a moment to relax.
d) All of the above.

If you nodded to, heck...ANY of the above, do you "Pandora?"
On pandora.com you can design your own playlist of songs or artists. And, you can find songs or artists similar to the ones you already know about. This is part of the Music Genome Project - which my niece told me about a few years ago...and I thought the concept was cool.

Basically, you create an account and sign-in (they don't send you junk mail). Then you create "stations." All that means is that if you like Frank Sinatra, you type...pay attention now, this gets tricky...Frank Sinatra. (Yep. It's a breeze.) And, you will get some Frank, and some folks similar to Frank that you might or might not know already.

One of my stations is Ella Fitzgerald. So, they also automagically recommended Sarah Vaughn - who I also adore. Score!

You can also "Thumbs down" or "Thumbs up" a song to give feedback and let Pandora get to know your tastes. Notice in the pic above that I gave a Thumbs Up to Ella and a Thumbs Down to John Tesh. (Sorry, John. Nothing personal.)

It even has a Mix, so you can shuffle a few of your stations. Right now I'm listening to George Winston, George Winston - Holiday, Ella, Reba, and Diana Krall. To me, this is perfect "Holiday Decorating" music. Too bad I'm at work. (I guess it makes pretty good "Sit on the phone with Dell to replace a hard drive" music, too.)

All of the stuff above is included on a free account. Sure there are some limits - and you can read about those. Basically, they are limited by how many times they can play an artist - but, to me that's fine since they toss in other similar artists that I also enjoy. And, you are limited by how many Thumbs down you can give in an hour and day. (But, here's a trick they tell you on the site. If you wait till the song you dislike ends, you can Thumbs down them without it counting towards the limit.)

I use the free account and I love it!
So, who are YOU listening to?
And, have you discovered an artist that's "new to you?"
I'd love to hear! Pin It

1 comment:

kat said...

My personal station started with Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours," and now I am in love with Mat Kearney and Jack Johnson. I've also realized that there's defnitely more to Colbie Caillat and Sarah Bareilles than what shows up on top 40, and 've grown to love them, too.

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--Dana

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