Al Abut

Killer New Feature: Recent Music

Thursday, October 19, 2006

I've been listening to some seriously good music lately and discovering all kinds of new stuff thanks to Pandora, so I added something to my blog that I think is pretty cool: a little widget to help share what songs I'm listening to.

If you scroll down the sidebar on the right side of any page on my blog - like, say, the post from back in February about finding out about Pandora - you'll see a section titled "Recent Music" and short list of songs and dates. The song titles link to a page where you can listen to a sample, start listening to the whole thing by starting a station in Pandora, or buy the song on iTunes or at Amazon. The date is when I bookmarked it as a song I like.

The list of songs comes from my free account at Pandora. A quick intro on what Pandora is - it's an incredibly awesome music player, with its awesomeness derived from how much new music you discover on it. The way it works is that you give it an artist or song title and it automatically makes a streaming radio station of similar music. Then, as it plays, you can give songs a thumbs up to play more like it, or a thumbs down to play less of it. Two thumbs down for an artist and they never play in that station again - banned for life. You don't have to rate any songs, it'll play regardless, but it's fun and addictive to be a pretend DJ. Imagine being able to reach into your car stereo and telling the radio station to change their lineup! You can make up to 100 stations, all tailored to what you like.

I use Pandora at work to listen to some soothing music when I need to concentrate and at home, I've got these new kickass speakers (for only $30!!!) that make it a barrel-full-of-monkeys fun to check out new stuff.

elsewhere on the web: Pandora, music, blogging, sharing, rss