Now, this one has pretty much NOTHING to do with the law. Or legal research or writing. But it does have to do with technology and I guess that qualifies as fair game for subject matter.

Quite by accident and even inadvertently, while trying to find The Sopranos theme to create a ringtone for my phone (which for those who are interested, is called “The Chosen One”, by Alabama 3), I stumbled across a pretty cool web application. It is called Pandora. Some of you may already know of this rather cool thang, but for the relatively uninformed like myself, you may be asking yourself “What is Pandora?” other than Hera’s revenge on mankind. The Pandora People answer that question as follows:

Pandora is a new, more personalized kind of radio – where stations only play music you like. Just tell us one of your favorite songs or artists and we’ll create a station that explores just that part of the music universe.

Pandora is based on the Music Genome Project, which began in 2000 and is the most thorough analysis of popular music ever undertaken.

You can listen to your Pandora stations on the web, in your home, and on the go.

Tim Westergren, founder of the Music Genome project, describes that undertaking as follows:

On January 6, 2000 a group of musicians and music-loving technologists came together with the idea of creating the most comprehensive analysis of music ever.

Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or “genes” into a very large Music Genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song – everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It’s not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records – it’s about what each individual song sounds like.

Since we started back in 2000, we’ve carefully listened to the songs of tens of thousands of different artists – ranging from popular to obscure – and analyzed the musical qualities of each song one attribute at a time. This work continues each and every day as we endeavor to include all the great new stuff coming out of studios, clubs and garages around the world.

It has been quite an adventure, you could say a little crazy – but now that we’ve created this extraordinary collection of music analysis, we think we can help be your guide as you explore your favorite parts of the music universe.

Pandora is a free, streaming, customizable web-based radio. According to the site, it takes 20 to 30 minutes per song for the various Music Genome Project experts to quantify as many as 500 attributes of a song, including such characteristics as melody, harmony, instrumentation, vocals, and lyrics. You, the user, create a profile on Pandora and then generate “stations” merely by inputting a song or artist. Once the song or artist is located, the player begins endlessly playing other songs and artists within the Music Genome Project database that most closely resemble the attributes of your search term. You can create as many “stations” as you choose and can further refine them with “seeds.” You also can read and participate in a pretty comprehensive music blog, tell a friend about what you have found, locate shared stations and find other listeners. For some lucky people, Pandora also can be streamed to their mobile phones (I unfortunately, am not one of those people). At one time, Pandora charged a minimal monthly fee for its service; it now offers the player for free with profits generated by advertising dollars. ‘Course, you can limit your exposure to the advertising by starting your player and minimizing the screen.

The Pandora gang explain the adopted name as follows:

The name Pandora means “all gifted” in Greek. In ancient Greek mythology, Pandora received many gifts from the Gods, including the gift of music, from Apollo. She was also, as we all know, very curious. Unlike those Gods of old, however, we celebrate that virtue and have made it our mission to reward the musically curious among us with a never-ending experience of music discovery.

This pretty much sums up the Pandora experience. Give it a try and take a break from the grind. May I humbly suggest my Frankie Valli – “You’re Just Too Good To Be True” station? Everybody Dance Now!!!!!!!

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