Free music - and you don't even have to leave the house

This blog is primarily intended to entice you to check out CDs here at the Des Plaines Public Library. However, as I write this, I am also enjoying the free Internet radio service called Pandora. Have you tried it? It's the kind of thing that's so cool, so utterly simple, I keep wondering, "What's the catch?"

Sign up for a free account. You can opt out of "music suggestions," which sounded like "annoying emails" to me. Now you're in. Type in the name of an artist, a song or a composer. It sets up a "radio station" based on that input. Then it's like you're listening to a radio station, playing that song and others similar in quality, or that band and bands that might have been around at the same time or perform a similar style. Here's an example:

I typed in "Cheap Trick." A station titled Cheap Trick Radio now resides on my Pandora page. Here's a selection of what it offers me for listening:

• "I Want You To Want Me" from Live at Budokan;
• "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey - not sure that's a good fit...;
• "Let's Go" by the Cars - that's okay;
• "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" by Judas Priest. Cool...
• "Don't Bring Me Down" by ELO. Kinda...

Now, how does Pandora guess at what you might want to listen to next? It's based on the Music Genome Project. You can read about it. For a music geek like me, sounds like a dream job! Spend day after day listening to songs and analyzing them. Sign me up.

Back to my stations: I can listen to each song or choose to move on - however, they limit the number of songs you can skip at a given time. They keep trying to convince me I want to listen to the Talking Heads tonight and, well...I assume that is part of how they make their money - they do make money, don't they? You can also give a thumbs up or down to each song and supposedly that will help to improve your "station." I have yet to see any advertising but I literally just started using Pandora 10 minutes before I started typing here. Oops, never mind - an ad for AT&T just popped up. Easily ignored, however.

While each song is playing, you get cover art and a write-up of the band/artist, usually from AllMusic Guide. Ah, here's another money-making possibility - click "Menu" by the artist/band name and you get some options: Bookmark this song, Bookmark this artist, Buy this song from iTunes, Find this artist in iTunes. So Pandora is clearly forging partnerships with other commercial entities. I knew someone had to be making some money from this! :)

Here's the thing: you don't own these songs. You can't make a mix CD for your girlfriend or put them on your wedding video. You can just listen and enjoy from pretty much anywhere. I am listening on my iPad but it works on a computer, phone, etc. If you, like me, stopped listening to commercial radio a long time ago because of the endless commercials and the lack of interesting music, you might really enjoy Pandora. I think of all the times I wanted to hear an old song or a faddish new hit and went ahead and bought it, sometimes the entire CD, and then discovered it quickly grew tiring. With Pandora, I can give it a good listen and then make a purchase decision.

You may be aware that we recently lost our interlibrary van delivery service. We're hoping it will come back but we have no idea when or how. That makes it more difficult (but not impossible) for you, our patrons, to borrow items from other libraries. Pandora might help ease your music cravings until we sort out a new delivery service. Try it out: www.pandora.com
Already using it? What do you think of it? Would you recommend another service instead?