pandora.com - way cool

My friend Brad turned me on to Pandora (www.pandora.com) and I am totally digging it. I am using the free service so far. Basically you type in an artist or a song and it creates a “station” (as in radio station) of music that shares similar characteristics, and presents the songs one after another. You don’t know what’s coming, and you can’t choose a particular song to play, though by clicking “thumbs up” or ‘thumbs down” for each song you can “teach” Pandora what songs you want to hear or not hear. I have about ten stations of different genres. For each song you can click on an icon and get detailed information about the song, the album, or the artist. It is a super way to hear both music you like and music which you may not have known before. I’ve discovered I really like the band “Wilco” about which I had known pretty much nothing. I have a hard time working in total quiet, and it’s great to have the music playing in the background, and if I want to pause and listen closely I can do that. You should check it out.