Opening Pandora's Box

[Kurtis]

"Who is your favorite band? What do they sound like? Who else sounds like them? Have you ever sat around with your friends and asked these same questions? Chances are that most of your music collection, be it digital, CD or vinyl, was heavily influenced by bands that were recommended to you by friends or other sources. Back in the dark ages before the internet, I could often be spotted at the local record shop bugging the clerks for import CDs and hard to find out-of-print albums. Fortunately, in the internet age I have a much easier time of finding music. With easy access to such services as iTunes, eMusic and Amazon, I’ve been pretty successful at weaseling out MP3 versions of albums that previously only existed in my music collection on audio tape. Now that I’ve found that elusive MC Rad album from my junior high days, how do I find new music?"

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http://www.thetechlounge.com/article/278/Opening+Pandoras+Box/

[Kurtis]

If you liked this article, please Digg it:
http://digg.com/music/Pandora_streaming_radio_service_tested_founder_Tim _Westergren_interviewed

If you're not already registered, I encourage you to register for Digg - it's a great place to go for all sorts of tech news.

[Mister_Me]

Does Pandora have advertisements on it, like regular radio? I could never stand listening to the radio, due to all the advertisements. Just gets on the nerves after a while.

[Kurtis]

i don't believe it has any actual AUDIO ads... just ads on the actual website. Brad would know for sure though since he's the one who has used it for a long time. I've used it for a few hours at a time on occasion though and don't recall any ads like you hear on the radio.

[J2T]

Nope, no audio ads to this point. I use to use it a lot at work, but my employer has now blocked it due to it using up too much bandwidth apparently. :-P There are ads on the site, but I pretty much ignore them. I still listen to it at home, it beats the radio IMO.

[handrail]

J2T is correct, there are no audio ads, only ads on the webpage itself...which aren't at all annoying.

check it out and see. you don't even have to register to test it.

brad.

[WVmaniac]

Just discovered this past week! Where have I been? I used to have XM in my car, now I just use pandora on my blackberry and Bluetooth through my Hummer's radio! Way better than XM and knows exactly what I like. No more flipping through controls on my stereo while on those trails- I can actually concentrate on where I'm going, the scenery, and sit back and enjoy the tunes. The only thing that sucks is that I occasionally loose service in these country road mountains of West-by-God-Virginia.