Pandora.com and finding new music

[deer of the dawn]

I just discovered this very simple music streaming site. You put in artists you like and they make a radio station that streams music of that genre and type of music. A commercial comes up every few songs. I'm not sure how they decide what to stream. I typed in Bob Dylan, Switchfoot, Peter Gabriel and Asa, and Van Morrison came up

I like it because I'm poor and can't afford tons of CDs. This gives me a way to listen for free and decide what to buy, or at least to covet. Plus to hear my old faves come up unexpectedly, or tracks I had forgotten about (Peter Gabriel's Digging in the Dirt came up. Cool!)

Anyway, I'm liking it, but I have always wondered how people like me who did NOT have a cool older brother or sister with unlimited income to buy music discover the new music they want to buy and keep?? How do you do it?

[Gil galad]

It seems to only be available if you're coming from inside the US

[Cagliostro]

I used to subscribe to CMJ magazine (College Music Journal). They had a CD with the magazine, and I'd toss the magazine and listen through the CD. I found quite a few bands that way. Now I've been picking up new music from strange sources, like Rock Band, and karaoke games. And the show Weeds seems to have a lot of great songs on it.



Thanks for starting this as you forced me to look up CMJ online. If you like "discovering" bands before they become big, here is a good place to do it. It looks like they have downloads and samples. I will probably be a frequent visitor from now on.

[psytech]

Wow.

Went to the site, typed in Hindemith, not really expecting much. However, it not only picked some Hindemith, but other composers with music of similiar styles, etc. Very interesting.

Thanks, DotD!

[rdhopeca]

Been using Pandora for a while and love it.

[I'm Murrin]

Used to listen to Pandora. Back when it didn't put ads between the songs, just limited how often you could skip tracks.

[kevinswatch]

Pandora has ads now? Lame.

I used to listen to it a lot, but not recently. It was good fun, and I learned a bunch of new music that I like.-jay