by Michael Mehlberg

Created on: December 02, 2009

Having used Pandora.com for the past three years, I can unequivocally say that no other Internet music experience rivals that found on this website. The ease with which you can create custom music stations, the sound quality of its music broadcast, their spot-on selection of music to match your tastes, and the unobtrusiveness of their advertisements makes Pandora an absolute pleasure to visit on a daily basis. Pandora.com is one of those rare websites that is much more than a website. It is a true online application that deserves serious attention from both music fanatics and laypersons alike.

Pandora.com was started in 2000 with a single mission, stated simply: To play only the music you'll love. In this, they've nearly completely succeeded. If you are a new user, the first thing you'll want to do is create a station after creating a free login name and password. Creating a station is simple and informative. Simply enter the name of an artist, album, song title, or genre and Pandora will create a music station to play other songs containing similar musical qualities to your specification. For example, enter Dave Matthews as a new station, and Pandora will play music from this artist, and other artists in the same genre as Dave. It's a fantastic way to discover new musicians, and a brilliant way to listen to the radio at the comfort of your desk without having to put up with listening to FM music that doesn't play to your tastes.

For the most part, and I do mean most, Pandora does an excellent job of choosing music that fits the style and musical qualities within the station you've created. Every once in a while, a seemingly random song will pop up which doesn't quite seem to fit. Even so, it's easy to skip the song and train Pandora to learn your tastes by clicking the Thumbs Down button. In the same way, if you hear a song that fits the station particularly well, or you just plain love, click the Thumbs Up button and Pandora will play more music like it.

In summary, Pandora is a website that cannot be ignored. It works on all of the popular web browsers (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari, etc.) and it passes no costs along to the end user through its effective use of advertising. At the core of these and dozens of other features, Pandora is a rock-solid online application that delivers high quality music tailored specifically to your musical tastes.

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