Pandora Rocks and Hip Hops and Hee Haws and Blasts to the Past

One of my Facebook friends recently reminded me of Pandora.

Her status read, "I'm in the midst of another pandora inspired dance party. 7:51pm - Comment."

I first stumbled across Pandora.com a couple of years ago. Pandora is a free music website. Read: Internet Radio. But better because it's easily customizeable.

So, I started listening to Pandora again, because I'm too lazy to load up the music on my computer or plug in my MP3 player.

Oh! One other reason I love listening to Pandora is to find new music. Although I do love getting music referrals from my friends, especially when someone surprises me with a CD.

But in between life's sweet little surprises, I turn on Pandora.

I almost forgot to mention, in the last two years, Pandora has gotten so much better than when I first started listening to it. As far as I can tell, Pandora has achieved musical perfection by adding "billions and billions" of songs and artists to the site. A great music site is more than just a great web design and easy navigation, it better have great music. And Pandora does!

Also, Pandora is not Spamdora. So don't be afraid to sign up for an account. It appears to be safe and dedicated to its mission:

"Since we started back in 2000, we have been hard at work on the Music Genome Project. It's the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken. Together our team of fifty musician-analysts has been listening to music, one song at a time, studying and collecting literally hundreds of musical details on every song. It takes 20-30 minutes per song to capture all of the little details that give each recording its magical sound - melody, harmony, instrumentation, rhythm, vocals, lyrics ... and more - close to 400 attributes! We continue this work every day to keep up with the incredible flow of great new music coming from studios, stadiums and garages around the country."

As far as listening choices for the lazy, there are genre stations ranging from Alternative, classical, Electronic, Holiday, New Age, R&B, Blues, Country, Folk Jazz, Oldies, Reggae, Christian Dance, Hip Hop, Latin, Pop, Rock.

Then within those categories there are subcategories, with anywhere from 5 to as many 18 sub-genres, in each category. Rock or Wock! for winner rings in with 18 sub-genres.

Sometimes with pre-programmed radio, the same track list plays over and over, but with Pandora not only is there a variety of tracks, but there is an option to skip playing a song for an entire month. People, that is a built in "Fail" button!

The other delicious part of Pandora is I can type in a favorite song, or artist then Pandora creates a station of music similar to the artist or song. I just created a "Wicked," station and Pandora is playing Broadway hits songs ranging from "Rent" to "Mama Mia" to "Alladin." I'm in auditory orgasmic bliss.

And it gets better. After I have created all my stations, via artist or song, I can use the Quick Mix button, and select all or some of my radio stations to play. Talk about a musical orgy.

So whether you love to listen to music, or have private naked dance parties in your kitchen, Pandora is worth checking out.