The Data Port

Pandora Rocks

Thanks to the Music Genome Project you can have music wherever you go, delivered on internet “stations” that not only reflect your musical tastes, but actually offer suggestions that let you discover music that you didn’t know.

It all begins with the MGP. The Project started ten years ago when a group of “music loving technologists”…

….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.

Here’s how it works.

You sign on to Pandora at: www.pandora.com. This is free, supported by ads that appear off to one side of your “station list.”

If you are using the service for free you are limited to …I believe…forty hours a month. I popped for the Pandora One service, add-free music 24/7, for 36 dollars a year.

Since I am a Jazz fan I began by entering the names of a couple of Jazz musicians I like… I think it was Muggsy Spanier and Joe Venuti…and Hey, Presto! I was off and running. When I couldn’t think of new artists to add, Pandora suggested new ones and I began to discover music I hadn’t known before.

As I write this I am listening to Jerry Mulligan and Stan Getz on my “Cool Jazz” station. I have also built, and continue to build, a general jazz station and a station devoted to string jazz.

Using Pandora has broadened my musical experience. I started my String Jazz station by entering “Stephane Grappelli” and “Django.” Pandora suggested artists I hadn’t known. Who knew there were so many great jazz string men?

Pandora “shuffles” the music on each of your stations so that you are not always listening to the same order. It will also shuffle music between any number of your stations if you wish. If Jazz is not your thing, there are all sorts of alternatives: Classical, Rock, Country, Reggae, Latin, R&B, etc etc etc.

Want Pandora on your iPod/iPhone? They have an app for that.

Give Pandora a try…I think it’s terrific.