Pandora is driven by The Music Genome Project which categorizes music not just by genre, but by techical attributes such as “harmony and rhythm, instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony.” Like a radio station, you don’t get to pick what song plays next, but the more feedback you give to Pandora, the more your station(s) play what you like.

Pandora is a great way to discover new music.  I’ve discovered many artists and bought (yes, for real $$) their music to add to my collection. You might think the music labels would be eager to see Pandora (and others like it) succeed.  On the contrary, the Copyright Royalty Board, backed by the RIAA is raising the royalties on Internet music stations like Pandora.  This year, Pandora will pay 70% of it’s revenue in music royalties.  Higher rates can have no effect but putting Internet radio out of business.  Traditional broadcast radio (owned by corporations with huge lobbying budgets) pay NO royalties; XM and Sirius pay about 2% of their revenue to royalties.

Check Pandora out.  If you like it, write your representatives in Washington and tell them that you want to save Internet radio.  Representative Howard L. Berman, a Democrat from California, is attempting to work up a deal between Pandora and SoundExchange, the organization that represents artists and labels, but so far there is no movement on the issue.