Pandora

Pandora on the Palm Pre

I've been a music lover all my life. I own hundreds of CD's and I love shopping for, listening to, and creating music. When I told my husband I'd never tried Pandora he seemed rather shocked. Right away he installed the Pandora app on my Pre and then showed me how Pandora works.

Now, I'm hooked.

This morning I was sitting out on the porch with my little boy. As we ate our toast and enjoyed the cool morning breeze I asked him if he'd like to listen to some music. Being a music lover like his mommy he got all excited. I turned on the Pandora app and in seconds we were listening to some of our favorite songs. … Read more

Pandora headed to Android with premium features

It took awhile, but Pandora is finally coming to the Android mobile platform. And even better, it's set to launch a new premium service called Pandora One.

Pandora is a music discovery service Web site created by the Music Genome Project that's currently available for iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and most recently the Palm Pre. By analyzing over 400 musical attributes, Pandora is able to identify traits in music and suggest new songs that are similar to what you requested. Just type in an artist or song you like and Pandora will create a personalized radio station based on that single selection.

Buzz Out Loud 1014: Goobuntu lives

On today's Buzz Out Loud, Natali and Molly form a new Amazonian society in advance of the development of artificial sperm. But in much more important news, Google is finally building the thin-client, Netbook-friendly operating system that Molly predicted back in 2005. And poor Yahoo is stuck in 2005: it just announced Search Pad. Aw. Poor Yahoo.

Listen now: Download today's podcast Subscribe now: iTunes (audio) | iTunes (video) | RSS (audio) | RSS (video) EPISODE 1014

Introducing the Google Chrome OS http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10281744-2.html

Which Molly predicted in 2005! … Read more

Web radio, music industry reach agreement on royalties

Internet radio got a break Tuesday when the sector reached an agreement on streaming-music royalty rates with SoundExchange, the group that collects royalties on behalf of artists and labels.

The two sides announced the deal, which comes after more than two years of negotiations, political maneuvering, and fans pleading with lawmakers to save Webcasting. It should be noted, however, that Webcasters are still at a disadvantage when competing with traditional broadcast radio. Over-the-air stations aren't required to pay royalty rates to artists or labels.

Steve Marks, an executive vice president for the Recording Industry Association of America and one … Read more

Road to Pandora now goes through Amazon

Pandora is a great music-discovery service, so it's only natural that independent bands would hope to get their music placed on it. Unfortunately for them, Pandora just made that a little harder--and a little more expensive.

As I first saw on the Digital Audio Insider blog a couple weeks ago, Pandora recently changed its music submission process, and is now accepting solicitations only from bands who have a physical CD for sale through Amazon.com. That requires the artist to manufacture a CD with proper album art and bar code, which is much more expensive than creating a bunch … Read more

Fast file recovery

File recovery has never been easier thanks to Pandora Recovery. The program's wizard-like approach to finding and retrieving lost files will appeal to all users.

The user interface is about as straightforward as it gets. Clean and simple menu and command buttons run across the top of the paneled window, while a tree-menu containing hard-disk folders to browse resides in a sidebar. But what stood out the most was the program's wizard, which walked us through the process of locating long-lost files. It first prompts you to check your Recycle Bin, which sounds obvious, but is a necessary … Read more

EMI lawsuit hasn't shut down Grooveshark--yet

You know that old maxim about something being too good to be true? I wondered how my new favorite on-demand music-streaming service, Grooveshark, was able to avoid the record industry lawsuits that plagued its predecessors, such as Seeqpod and Imeem.

Turns out, it isn't immune. Grooveshark contacted me earlier this week to let me know that its negotiations with EMI were on the verge of breaking down. (You can read Grooveshark's official statement here.)

Yesterday evening, Peter Kafka at All Things Digital uncovered the fact that EMI had actually sued Grooveshark back in May--talk about tough negotiation tactics! … Read more

Sirius XM's latest blunder: Its iPhone app

Sirius XM is at it again. The company that has faced numerous financial issues over the past few years has finally released its much-anticipated app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. There's just one problem: it leaves out much of the good stuff.

The new app allows users to access some of the service's sports, talk, comedy, and music channels. The available channels include, Oprah Radio, MLB Home Plate, NFL Radio, NHL Home Ice, Mad Dog Radio, The Foxxhole comedy channel, and NPR.

Users will also have access to a variety of Sirius XM music channels, including E Street Radio, The Grateful Dead Channel, Eminem's Shade 45, Radio Margaritaville, Siriusly Sinatra, and others. All told, users will be able to listen to 120 channels. Any music track can be purchased in iTunes while listening to it in the Sirius XM app.

But it's the omissions that will undoubtedly sway public opinion. According to Sirius XM, "some select programming, including MLB Play-by-Play, NFL Play-by-Play, Nascar Radio, and Howard Stern, will not be available on the iPhone and iPod Touch."

In its press release, Sirius XM didn't provide any reason why some of its most popular channels aren't included. But after some digging, I found that those omissions may be due to "mobile-performance rights."

"Sirius and XM offer all of the channels for which we have mobile-performance rights," the company wrote on its iPhone app's FAQ page. "For that reason, certain channels which may be available on your satellite radio or online radio service may not be available on a mobile device like the iPhone."

Sirius XM is giving users a free seven-day trial with the app. After that, it's charging a fee to access the content. I called a Sirius XM customer service representative to see how much it would cost to get that service. He told me that as a current Sirius XM subscriber, I would need to pay an additional $2.99 per month after the seven-day trial. Those who currently do not subscribe to the service will be forced to pay $12.95 per month for access.… Read more

Launch a radio takeover with Jelli

Jelli is an online radio station whose playlist is controlled entirely by its users. It's different from radio stations that can be personalized, like Pandora or Slacker, which create unique stations for each user based on his or her tastes. Rather, Jelli is a collective--there's only one playlist, and it's ruled by the votes of the masses.

The concept is simple: Jelli shows you the songs on its playlist, then lets you vote whether each song rocks or sucks. Songs move up and down on the playlist based on their overall vote count. A few mischievous features … Read more

Pandora tips and tricks

What's not to love about the online radio site Pandora? There's simply no better way to hear great music with a minimum of fuss; just type in a song or artist that fits your mood, and Pandora creates a stream of music just for you.

Unfortunately, Pandora's emphasis on simplicity can be a turn-off for those who crave more sophisticated features. But just like the mythical box from which it's named, there's more to Pandora than meets the eye. By digging deeper into menus and settings, Pandora power users can finesse some pretty cool tricks … Read more