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Ever since Eric Zorn mentioned Pandora on his blog, I’ve been hooked.
Pandora is an Internet radio station with a major twist. It’s a product of the Music Genome Project, which has spent the past 5 years categorizing the music of over 10,000 artists.
Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or “genes” into a very large Music Genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It’s not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records - it’s about what each individual song sounds like.
What happens is, you choose an artist and then Pandora programs a station. You can add other artists to the station and create as many as 100 stations.
The service is very interactive. If you don’t like a song, or think it doesn’t belong, just tell Pandora how you feel and it won’t play that song ever again. If you really like the song you can tell Pandora to play more like it.
Right now, I’m decompressing, browsing your comments from today and listening to my Wilco station. Currently playing is a song by Shipwreck Union. I’m a happy man.
I haven’t had a lot of time to tinker with it yet because of session, but here are my stations so far:
· Wilco· Waylon Jennings/Robert Earl Keen
· Fats Domino
· Sinatra
I’ve been a moonshiner
for seventeen long years
and I spent all my money
on whiskey and beer
and I go to some hollow
and set up my still
if whiskey don’t kill me
Lord, I don’t know what will
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, May 5, 06 @ 3:22 pm
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Thanks Rich. This is just the site I needed to get me through the rest of my Friday (after a very late night). This is why they created the internet.
Comment by St. Nick Name Friday, May 5, 06 @ 3:53 pm
sounds like someone is too disgusted to comment on the end of session budget craziness…
Comment by capitol view Friday, May 5, 06 @ 3:56 pm
Rich,
Here are some other groups to listen to if you love Wilco like I do: The Arcade Fire, & Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. I wonder what Pandora would come up with if you choose them?
Comment by VanillaMan Friday, May 5, 06 @ 4:08 pm
When I found it, as a test of its knowledge of the obscure, i gave it some Scottish bands. It didn’t know Pearlfishers or Danny Wilson, but it did a pretty good job with High Llamas and an ok job with Trashcan Sinatras, such as Back in the High Life by Warren Zevon as a Trashcan Sinatras-type song). So i think it passed the obscurity test.
Comment by Al Anon Friday, May 5, 06 @ 6:00 pm
Never heard of Jascha Heifetz. Why explore further?
Comment by Ivory-billed Woodpecker Friday, May 5, 06 @ 8:27 pm
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is incredible. Drive By Truckers is pretty good if you’re into alt-country.
Uncle Tupelo was incredibly overrated. Wilco is wonderful and I don’t mind some of Jay Farrar’s subsequent stuff.
Comment by Anon Friday, May 5, 06 @ 10:15 pm
Wilco must be a born and bred in Illinois thing.
Comment by T.J. Monday, May 8, 06 @ 12:00 am
Rich,
Wilco/Son Volt/Uncle Tupelo made it on to my bizarro world Grandstand line-up at this year’s state fair. Fanstasy league concert booking is surprisingly cathartic for anyone perennially disappointed in the fair’s musical offerings. If you’re so inclined, check it out at BlogFreeSpringfield and give it a go yourself in the comments section.
Dan
Comment by BlogFreeSpringfield Monday, May 8, 06 @ 9:01 pm