by Tricia Muller

Created on: December 05, 2009

Pandora.com and the Music Genome Project have become fairly well known over the last few years, but is it a good site for the average user? Does it have a large database of music that is easy to access? Is it easy to join and maintain an account? Maybe most importantly, is it affordable for the average internet user?

On Pandora's home page are easy to find sign up and log in links. The site seems to have good servers, as pages load quickly. The pages are neat, easy to read, and it is easy to find what you are looking for. Once you have signed up for an account there are tabs at the top of the page for Your Profile, About The Music, Mobile, and Help.

Let's take a look at the My Profile page first. Neatly arranged on the left is the listing of your radio stations, site and user created, with a place for other listeners you have bookmarked. There is a place in the middle showing your current music activity, a text view, visualizer and a link to embed your widget. To the right is a space for you to include a bio and below that an area for people to leave you comments. At the bottom is room for any bookmarked songs and/or artists you have. It's all easily navigable and well written.

Next, we'll look at the About The Music link. It has a drop down menu for finding songs and artists, Pandora's blog and video series, and an About link for the Music Genome project. Again, it's easy to navigate and concise.

Next is the Mobile link. Here you will find information about the mobile services Pandora offers through various phone services.

Under the help link there is a well written page enabling you to search FAQ'S, contact Pandora, or check out the links for Jobs, Press, Management, and the Board. It is filled with helpful info, and is again, neatly written and easy to navigate.

Now, on to the main feature, the music. Pandora has eighteen preset stations that have many substations listed by genre. For those who don't care to create their own stations this approach gives plenty of variety to choose from.

For those who do want to create their own stations, that can be done in a snap at Pandora. Simply click the Create a New Station link at the top left and you're on your way. All you have to do is enter the name (or partial name) of an artist or song in the search bar, hit enter, and let Pandora do the rest. The sites' AI is very good at adding music that compliments your choices to your stations, even if you have more than one or two artists or songs on a particular station.

The database of music seems to be very well constructed as well. After having personally used Pandora for over a year I have yet to search for a song or artist and not found what I was looking for.

As for affordability, Pandora gives users forty free hours of listening a month and you can upgrade for only 36.00 a year.

With other options such as Station Gifting, and app's for Facebook and other social sites, Pandora is a well rounded music site with something for everyone. I highly recommend it for anyone from the avid listener, to casual listeners who just want a little background noise.

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