By Media general News Service
Published: May 7, 2008

QUESTION: Dear Propeller Heads: My boyfriend mentioned a new online “radio” called Pandora. Have you heard it?
ANSWER: Pandora (http://www.pandora.com) is one of several sources for streaming music on the Web, but it happens to be one of the best.
It is extremely easy to use. Just create a free account, and then click the “Create a New Station” button. Enter the name of an artist or song you like.
Pandora will then begin playing music with characteristics similar to the music you chose. If you like the song, you can tell Pandora to play similar songs.
You can also dismiss songs you don’t like, or add more artists or songs to your station. Over time, your station will become attuned to your musical tastes.
You can create additional stations to play different types of music or even for particular moods.
Pandora is a great way to discover new music, and handy links are provided to allow you to buy the CD from Amazon or the song from iTunes.
There is a wealth of information on the song and artists, and a host of other features to enhance your listening experience.
The “engine” behind this remarkable site is the Music Genome Project.
According to the Pandora Web site, a group of “music-loving technologists” gathered in January 2000 to begin the process of identifying a set of musical attributes that could be used to classify a particular piece of music. These attributes included “melody, harmony and rhythm instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics” and other characteristics.
That is what allows Pandora to present a song by Steve Winwood on a station modeled around Steely Dan.
I created a Pandora station with Jimmy Buffett. The first song was by Buffett, but the next was by Jack Johnson, an artist I knew little about but liked.
Then my serenity was disrupted with the inane lyrics: “Blah, blah, blah small town. Blah, blah, blah, small town.” Ack! John Mellencamp. I quickly clicked the “thumbs down” icon to banish “small town” from my station. A few minutes later, I banished “a little ditty about Jack and Diane.”
Life is good in Pandoraville!
There are other ways to listen to music through the Internet:
LastFM (http://www.lastfm.com) will create a profile using the songs you like and allows you to exchange playlists with others, but you have to download their software to take full advantage of these features.
Deezer (http://www.deezer.com), a French site, is similar to Pandora, but you have to create your own playlists. It also offers pre-defined stations grouped by genre. Don’t bother clicking the Help link unless you can read French.
AOL has a good selection of stations by genre (music.aol.com/radioguide/bb), including some XM Satellite stations. But you cannot alter the playlists.
Several sites allow you to listen to live radio broadcasts over the Internet, such as RadioTower.com and Live365.com. Microsoft also offers a link to various stations using their media player (http://www.live365.com/index.live). Of course, there’s always the old reliable RR Radio (http://tinyurl.com/2q9j9y) for Rick Astley fans.
One caution: streaming music can tie up a hefty amount of bandwidth, so you are out of luck unless you have a broadband Internet connection.
If you want to listen at work, check with your IT department first to make sure you will not slow down everyone else’s Internet connection. And please use headphones, especially if you like listening to songs about small towns.
Send your questions on business or consumer technology to . Or, contact the Propeller Heads at Data Directions, 8510 Bell Creek Road, Mechanicsville, VA 23116 or at (804) 427-2426.