 |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
||
 |
 |
|
||
|
||||
 |
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
PandoraMay 12, 2009 I've had reliable high-speed Internet access since the beginning of January, but my speakers were resolutely OFF unless I wanted to watch a video or listen to an audio greeting card. My living space is visually cluttered (I call it "homey") but audio clutter makes me nuts. I could disable the sound effects for every application I use -- like I really want FreeCell to bleep at me when my mouse aims a card at the wrong space? -- or I could shut the speakers up. Besides, I'm within range of WUMB-FM, a public radio station out of UMass-Boston that is tailor-made for lovers of acoustic, traditional, and roots music like me, and I've got a modest collection of CDs and tapes for when the radio won't do. Several people mentioned Pandora, though, and I was intrigued: a Web-based radio station, sorta, that you could tell what music you liked and it would play stuff like it? About three weeks ago I gave it a try. I'm hooked. On Pandora, you set up radio stations for yourself, as many as a hundred. If you don't know where you start, it'll give you a list of musical genres to choose from. I started my first station with (big surprise) James Keelaghan. Pandora played a song from Timelines, Keelo's very first album, then started offering songs that it figured that a Keelaghan lover would like. The mix was pretty good, not unlike what I hear on WUMB. To deepen or focus the mix, you can "seed" your station with more artists or with particular songs. My seeds for Keelo Radio now include Bob Franke, Cindy Kallet, Jean Redpath, Steeleye Span, and the Watersons. You can also vote "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" on particular songs, or move a song to another station. Keelo is my folkie, singer-songwriter, Celtic-Brit traditional station. I've got four more stations going now: Bruce Springsteen Radio, Blues and Then Some, Around the World, and Lezzies and Wild Girls. So far I've heard plenty of music by familiar artists, but I've also been introduced to unfamiliar songs by singers I like and performers I'd either never heard of or hadn't paid enough attention to. If you're curious why a particular song was added to your playlist, Pandora will tell you. Ollabelle's "Elija Rock" came on my Blues and Then Some station because of its "electric rock instrumentation, gospel influences, jazz influences, subtle use of vocal harmony, and mild rhythmic syncopation." A few minutes later Pandora picked "Don't Ride That Horse," by Old Crow Medicine Show, because of its "folk roots, subtle use of vocal harmony, acoustic sonority, minor key tonality, and vocal-centric aesthetic." I gave "thumbs up" to both numbers. Then I switched back to Keelo Radio. I recognized Phil Ochs's Live at Newport version of "Links on the Chain" from the first words of his spoken introduction. Why had Pandora picked that one? Because of its "folk roots, major key tonality, acoustic rhythm guitars, and angry lyrics." You go, Phil. Thumbs up to that one. Come back soon. You can't request that Pandora play the same song over and over, or that it play the same artist exclusively. This is because of its licensing agreements with the labels and artists. If you know anything about the recording industry, you've got to marvel that Pandora managed to get off the ground at all. Its licensing arrangements have to be one of the wonders of the 21st century world. Pandora has some limitations for sure. The further you get from North America and the British and Celtic isles, the more limited the selection: my Around the World station doesn't include any Balkan style music, and the South African possibilities don't go much further than Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Pandora's never heard of Pete Morton (!!!), and Timelines is the only Keelaghan album they've catalogued. Programming Lezzies and Wild Girls has been somewhat frustrating: Pandora recognizes my diverse tastes in genre, my affinity for guitar and piano, and my love of vocal harmony, but it still hasn't noticed that all the artists I've picked to seed Lezzies and Wild Girls are female. My hunch is that I'd have the same problem if I were trying to create a Canadian station or a New England station or maybe even a sea song station. The "Music Genome Project" on which Pandora is based classifies by hundreds of different musical characteristics, but it doesn't seem to register that some of our listening preferences have non-musical roots. Pandora is only available in the U.S., according to the FAQs, but if you can come up with a zip code and your ISP isn't distinctively non-USian, you might be able to pass. It's worth checking out. Probably the biggest downside is that my list of albums and MP3s to buy is getting out of control.
|
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
 |
|
|||
 |
|
|||
Home - Writing - Editing - About Susanna - Bloggery - Articles - Poems - Contact Copyright ©
Susanna J. Sturgis. All rights reserved. |
||||