Pandora's Box.

I've been keeping a secret.

I used to surf around the Internet, checking out different radio station websites, Amazon, Blender, anything I could find to try and discover some new music to listen to. Nothing too drastic from what I listen to now, just a change of scene, so I don't get tired of the same old same old.
It worked Ok, but it was really hit and miss. Half the time I'd download something and it wouldn't be worth it. I found some gems, (like Arctic Monkeys) but my success rate was pretty low.

I forget where I first heard about Pandora.
It might have been Forumopolis, or maybe just some site I stumbled across. Basically, it's a subdivision of The Music Genome Project, (Whatever the hell that is,) and you enter the names of bands that you like into "Stations" and it plays a sample song from the band in question. It then plays songs that it thinks you might like from bands who have similar tendencies. The thing I enjoy is that it doesn't really do clone bands. It takes what you like about a group, turns it about two degrees, and then suggests it to you. You then choose if you like the song or not, and it makes further selections based on your feedback.

Yeah, it's not perfect, but then listening to Top Forty or generic Power Radio isn't really perfect either. At least this seems to give it some type of randomness, yet in an orderly fashion. And contradictions like that are some of my favorite things.

Give it a try, I think you'll like it.
I'm not sure how it will do for Rap, Hip Hop, or some of that Gay stuff the Sidekick listens to, but I hope it works as well for you as it's done for me.

Later.