Pandora Internet Radio: If you haven’t been introduced to Pandora, this is amazing and FREE. ABC’s Nightline did a story on it a few weeks ago which enlightened us here in the studio. Through their Music Genome Project, Pandora analyzes the musical qualities of every song into 400+ attributes. As a listener, when you create a custom radio station, you pretty much get exactly what you want to hear.

To test this, we created a own radio station called Phutura based on Phutureprimitive whose music is described on Amazon as “subterranean electronic tribalism, combining elements of organic downtempo, ethnic breaks, and sensual atmospherics. Ethereal vocals soar over dubbed-out basslines, and live percussion unfolds over odd time signatures creating a groove that is influenced by the synthetic textures of psychedelic trance as well as the kinetic grooves of world music.” Pandora describes one of the trakcs as having the following features: trance roots, electronica roots, downtempo influences, trip hop roots, rap influences, dub influences, danceable beats, subtle buildup/breakdown, use of tonal harmonies, minimalist arrangements, a bumpin' kick sound, a synth bass riff, arpeggiated synths, synth riffs, affected synths, a highly synthetic sonority, a wet recording sound, subtle use of noise effects, and tripped-out production.

Based on this radio station definition, Pandora has been playing a variety of selections from artists such as Air, Bassnectar, Bluetech, Entheogenic, Sasha, Sounds from the Ground, Ulrich Schnauss, among many others. We're impressed with the results: an endless stream of interestingly beautiful downtempo music. Only occasionally must a song be given a “thumbs down,” but this further improves Pandora’s ability to play what we want to hear. Since creating the Phutura station, we've also made a few more calculated tweaks to improve the station's seed songs. Pandora recommends creating a station based on a set of songs rather than an artist in general. You can read more about this in their extensive help area.

Give it a listen or try creating your own station. They have almost every genre of music including classical, jazz, you-name-it. The free version has a 40-hour listening limit per month and every so often, they play a very short ad. Pandora also works with iPad, iPhone, and many other mobile devices.

If you want even more, you can also upgrade to PandoraOne for $36 a year. This gives you commercial-free music and higher quality (192kbps) music. We like the service so much, we decided to go for it. Also, the standalone desktop version consumes less computer processor resources.

Update: If you're an independent artist, you can submit your music for consideration, however, be forewarned, Pandora is not friendly to indie artists.

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