Pandora is one of the sites that makes the web worth having. The site is a direct result of the Music Genome Project where a group of "a group of musicians and music-loving technologists" came together to perform a complex analysis of all music and codify songs based on hundreds of musical attributes or "genes". With Pandora you can benefit from the fruits of their Herculean labor.
At it's core, Pandora is a jukebox. It plays music. The genius of this jukebox is that you have the ability to create your own stations of music based on an artist or a song. Say for example, you like Chet Baker. Then you can create a Chet Baker station. The station will play Chet Baker songs, of course, but it will also try to find jazz tunes similar in melody, harmony, rhythm, instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, etc. to play.
The system isn't perfect, which is to be expected, and sometimes you'll hear songs that you don't think belong. All you have do is give the thumbs down and you'll never hear that song again. Similary, you can give a song the thumbs up and it will become a permanent part of the station's play list. Pandora will continue to refine your station based on your selections.
You can create as many stations as you want. You can share them friends. Buy the music if you are so inclined. And the service is free. If they could just figure out a way to get the songs on my IPod or in my car radio, I'd be set.
Here are some of my stations:
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