Solo Technology

I’ve mentioned the music service Pandora a few times in the past — and can say I still use them quite frequently. I’m also still a Last.fm user and a huge fan of the mashup PandoraFM which combines the two services. [other mentions for Last.fm and PandoraFM]

I keep forgetting to mention how far PandoraFM has come since the first time I wrote about it. I’ve been using the service all along, but I think most would agree the earlier incarnations were a bit hard on the eyes. Functional, yes. But awkward. Version 3 was released earlier this month and it is awesome. More options, more toys, more information about the current song. Oh, and way easier on the eyes. If you’re a Last.fm user, this is the way to listen to Pandora and keep track of what you’re listening to.

Speaking of updates, Pandora itself rolled out a bunch of fun stuff not quite 2 weeks ago. “QuickMix” is really the head-liner of this update:

[...] Some of you are looking for stations that are an eclectic mix of all of the kinds of music you love, not just one style. Tonight we’re rolling out a brand new feature called “QuickMix” to answer that request head on. When you visit Pandora, you’ll discover the QuickMix button at the bottom of your station list. Click the button, tell us which of your stations you want to mix together, and click “Listen Now”. We’ll automatically create a station that shuffles those stations together.

And, of course, you can share your mixed station. Also added is the ability to move songs to other, perhaps more appropriate stations, more stations and alternative station list sorting. All good stuff and all useful.

Speaking of sharing, here’s my “main” station that I’ve been nurturing and guiding for the last few months. The fun part of Pandora is every now and then something a bit weird shows up in the list (omg The Cure?!?) but often times it does fit in some way with what’s being played… This particular station was started by seeding it with a few songs by Rush, Dream Theater and Iron Maiden. I’ve found lots of new bands so far!

One last Pandora related nugget to mention: Open Pandora. Tired of needing to have a browser up for Pandora? This little player will let you send it to the system tray. It also offers Last.fm integration, hotkeys, MSN Messenger integration (”What I’m listening to”) and some other nice features (full list on download page). Definitely worth a look.

One Response to “Pandora Related Tidbits”

1. » pingback » R e a l - i t y . c o m v 3.1337 on October 25th, 2006 7:54 am
   
   

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