Free Service Description: There are many free Internet radio services but Pandora has a unique twist that makes it the most compelling free Internet radio service I have tried. Pandora truly helps you discover music that you will like based on the way the music sounds. Some services allow you to teach them what you like but Pandora takes custom free Internet radio to a whole new level.
How do I use this free Internet radio service?: Simply visit Pandora and choose an artist or song that your really like. Pandora will play a song from a another artist that has similar musical qualities. You can just let Pandora continue to play selections unaided or you can customize the free Internet radio service by telling Pandora whether you like or dislike certain songs. If you tell Pandora you don't like a song it won't be played on that station again.
How does the Pandora free Internet radio service pick music you will like?: Pandora has been developed from the Music Genome Project. The project started six years ago and uses a team of thirty trained musicians to catalog music based on up to 400 musical qualities of each selection. The musicians spend 20 to 30 minutes with each song to capture the details and define them in the database.
When you choose a starting song or artist Pandora finds other selections that have many of the same musical qualities of that song. The theory is that a song that has musical qualities simiar to one you really like will also be a selection you would enjoy. I must say, with the many hours I have been experimenting with this little gem of free Internet radio service, the theory is "sound" so to speak.
How much effort is required to use the Pandora free Internet radio service?: As you can see from the descriptions above, it is very easy to use Pandora. You can listen for about twenty minutes before you need to register. Registration is free and painless. You can feel free to use your junk email address if you wish. The Pandora site displays ads, but they are unobtrusive and silent. You can minimize the browser window for most of the time. You can even detach the music player window from the main browser window and close the window with the ads.
How do they pay for the free Internet radio service?: In addition to the ads they are displayed on the site, they are hoping you will purchase some of the music you discover with Pandora. You can click on any of the music selections and choose to purchase album from Amazon or the digital version of the song from Itunes.
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