Dominic Baez

Last week, I was introduced to the fantastic Web site Pandora.com. I cannot express how amazing this site is.

Let me explain: Pandora.com is a site that compiles playlists that attune to your personal musical tastes. You enter an artist you are particularly fond of, such as Rihanna or Ne-Yo, and the search engine puts together a playlist featuring artists who are similar in musical style.

I am stunned at how amazing the system is at figuring out what songs and artists suit me best. When I first put in Rihanna, the computer played “Disturbia,” which I love. It then followed it up with Ne-Yo’s “So Sick.” While I love the song too, I was a little confused as to why it was being played, considering how different it is from the previous song. But, to my amazement, there is a feature on the site that explains why each song was chosen, citing reasons such as the similarities between the ability to dance to it, whether it has the same rhythm or if it is the same musical genre. This combination of attributes greatly helps in making my personal playlist, well, personal.

To top it off, the service is free, as it is heavily sponsored by a multitude of companies trying to get your business. To be honest, though, I can totally deal with a ridiculous amount of advertisements as long as they do not pop up everywhere, which they don’t.

Another awesome feature of the Web site is that one is able to make many different playlists or stations each focusing on a different artist, genre or style. Right now, I have close to 15 playlists, featuring every genre from techno to rhythm and blues. No, I am not addicted.

There are some negative attributes to the site, though. One is that you cannot repeat a song. Once you play the song, you must wait until the system replays it on its own accord before you can hear it again, or you have to create a new station dedicated to that particular artist. Although you have the ability to give a song a “thumbs down,” which results in the song never begin played on that station again, Pandora’s licensing laws only allows you to skip so many song before you are forced to potentially listen to songs you do not want to
listen to.

I guess you can only have so much of a good thing, right? Despite the petty annoyances, I highly recommend everyone to at least try the site out. You might hate it or you might just fall in love with it. Trust me: Hearing is believing.