I’ve been trying out Pandora this afternoon and am so impressed. Pandora is an "web radio" application that takes a starting point, selected by you; compares it to other music based on syncopation, style, and other musical qualities and then creates a custom station based on your preferences. Most important, it relies on an undoubtedly complex set of criteria to select music for you, not genres set down by marketing teams and record labels. This isn’t to say that you’ll hear a super eclectic mix on Pandora; If you say you want things like Death Cab For Cutie, it’ll give you…well, bands that sound like DCFC. You can refine your tastes as the playlist goes on and purchase music from Amazon or iTunes. All this in a usable, clean-looking Flash interface.

Pandora isn’t publicly available, but you can sign up to test the beta on their home page. Could this be the next big thing? Maybe. It’s pretty to look at and a lot of fun to use. I’m getting hooked as we speak.

Pandora

Oops. Looks like Pandora will be a fee-based service. Undoubtedly, this is to cover some sort of license fee with the FCC and record labels. It’s too bad, this is an amazing application, but doesn’t have enough value for me to fork over $40/year.