If you are a music lover, you need to check out Pandora. Just visit www.pandora.com, sign up with your email address (don’t worry, it’s a safe site), tell it the name of one of your favorite bands or songs, and it starts playing music. It never stops – it’s your own custom radio station that plays 24×7 with no commercials. The more you tell it about what you like and don’t like, the better it is at playing only music you love.

Pandora is so good about picking music you like because of its vast database that is amazing at identifying why you like a song. It doesn’t just play all the songs by the band you submitted, or others that Joe Blow decided you might also like. It is based on The Music Genome Project, where hundreds of music characteristics were identified, going way past genres to details like “wailing guitar solos” or “driving beat” or “syncopated rhythms” etc.

The more you use Pandora, the smarter it gets. Each time a song plays, you have the option of rating it thumbs up or thumbs down. If you like it, you will hear more similar songs. If you don’t, it won’t play it again. It plays all your old favorites, and tons of new music you’ll love.

I have discovered tons of new music I would have never known about otherwise. I often “bookmark” those so I can refer back later and explore more songs and albums by those artists.

My “station” has become a nice reference for me. I can easily refer to my profile and see lists of all my favorite bands and songs.

If you love music, it’s worth checking out.