Hooked on Pandora.com

A month ago, I decided to check out Pandora.com -- a new "analytic recommendation" site for music that functions like your very own personalized Internet radio console. Pandora lets you create personalized "stations" based on specific artists or songs, and then plays music related to your stations selected from a database called the Music Genome Project. Cover art is displayed as songs are played, and song/artist information is available. A nifty "thumbs up/thumbs down" Tivo-like feature lets you fine tune the station selections. And if you like what you hear, you can even purchase tunes and albums.

Not only have I found Pandora to be a great resource for discovering music in specific musical genres from artists I wasn't familiar with, but I've been amazed at the sound quality of the music streaming across my cable modem/WiFi connection. If Pandora is any indication, Web 2.0-infused Internet radio sites are on the verge of completely redefining the business of radio.

For more on Pandora and other new Internet radio services, check out Matthew Shaer's excellent article on Slate.com.