How do you discover music that you will actually like, apart from by listening to the radio or relying on friends’ recommendations? Access the “music discovery service” Pandora, that’s how.
For almost six years now, the people at Pandora have been working on a “Music Genome Project”. A team of 30 musician-analysts have been listening to one pop song at a time, studying and collecting literally hundreds of musical details on every one, everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics and vocals.
On the site you can enter a band such as the Rolling Stones and it will create a radio station based on its analysis. It will start with a Stones song such as Complicated, then play It’s All Leading Up to Saturday Night by Marmalade, then Something to Say by the Action and similar bands ad infinitum. If you put in Norah Jones, it will find music that features the same “mellow rock instrumentation” and “mild rhythmic syncopation ”, such as Concrete Sky by Beth Orton.
This addictive website is available in two forms; the first is an advertising- supported version that is free. The second is free of advertising and offers an annual subscription of unlimited use for $36. If you want to buy tracks, it will connect you to either Amazon.com or i-Tunes.
www.pandora.com