Welcome! You can get the complete text of all the latest articles at Lake Country Saver in your email by subscribing to my RSS feed. Your address will only be used for mailing you the articles, and each one will include a link so you can unsubscribe at any time. Thanks for visiting!
Unlike the rest of the free world, I don’t have an iPhone. Or an MP3 player. Or XM/Sirius radio. Or anything else that plays music of my choice whenever I want it to. I am woefully out of the loop with music technology.
Until now. I discovered Pandora about two years ago, but it wasn’t until recently that I started using it daily. Wow! What a great, FREE service for fantastic music that I love.
Musical genes
This free Internet radio service is based on the insanely cool Music Genome Project, a way-too-complicated-to-explain-here analysis of music that chooses music for you based on your existing musical preferences.
On the Pandora site, you enter a song or artist that you like and the service responds by playing selections that are musically similar. You can tell the service what you like and don’t like, which helps Pandora make future selections for you. It’s kind of exciting to see what new music it will play for you next.
Every time you enter an artist or song, it creates and saves a “station” based on that music. You can’t choose the songs that are played, but it’s a great way to discover new music similar to stuff you already know you like.
There is a certain level of control involved: You can skip a few songs or replay something you liked. Plus, it keeps logs of what it plays so you never get stuck with an ear worm.
How we use it
We have our desktop computer in our dining room (don’t ask), which is actually great for using this service. We put on Pandora and we can hear it throughout the downstairs of the house — kind of like our own home stereo system. It’s perfect for listening to a little Miles Davis while I cook or The Weepies or Gillian Welch while we eat dinner. So far we have avoided adding a single kids’ station, which I am very happy about.
We listen to about 10 stations on a regular basis:
- Mile Davis Quintet
- The Weepies
- Gillian Welch
- Bob Marley
- Coldplay
- Martin Sexton
- Hollaback Girl
- Gwen Stefani
- Cassie
- Glamorous
The last four stations are Chandler’s. I swear.
Mobile music
Now you can get Pandora on your phone, too! I am really excited about this, since it would finally give me iPhone-ish status. My phone is supported through AT&T, but I have to add data service to my account. Gotta see how much that is. My goal is to load up some upbeat music that will inspire me to work out at the YMCA. (Seriously.)