Pandora Internet Radio is the free music revolution I’ve been searching for. last.fm has its place keeping track of my tastes and recommending similar music based on my history but I want to experience new genres of music! Pandora works on the approach of asking the listener – you! – your taste of the last played song and with this positive/negative feedback influencing the playlist.

Let’s take a test drive:

• I am asked a band I enjoy, I enter “bright eyes”
• I am asked to verify whether “bright eyes” was a band and not a track name, I click band
• The first track is played, if I enjoy it I am asked to “thumbs up” the track otherwise “thumbs down” and play the next track
• This process continues and very quickly a play-list of tracks I consistently enjoy is made from bands I would be otherwise unfamiliar with including The Shining, Discover America, She Wants Revenge. Cool stuff I reckon.

I’ll be playing with this further with different genres – rock, punk, pop, classical, chill – and various moods, for now though, this will be how I discover new artists.