Personalized Internet Radio

Internet radio is a great way to find new music without having to listen to the endlessly repeating top twenty songs on your local radio station. The integration of recommendation software with many online music players has also made it easier to find new music that matches individual tastes. There are lots of different music players available, and choosing the right one can be difficult.

Yahoo! Launchcast is probably the most popular online player that allows users to rate music and create personal "stations" based on these ratings. The free version of the software only allows one station to be created. If you want to build stations to fit your mood, you'll have to pay for an account. Once you've rated a few songs, you'll like most of the music that comes through your station. The problem is that most of the music will be stuff that you've already heard, with the occasional obscure track from a known artist thrown in. You're unlikely to find any real new music through Yahoo!, so it's best used when you just want background noise.

The Indy Custom Radio player is similar to the Yahoo! player in that you're restricted to a single "station" but is Yahoo!'s polar opposite when it comes to the kind of music you'll hear. Most of the songs on the Indy player are by unsigned artists, so you won't hear much familiar music when you use this player. Perhaps the most unique feature of the Indy player is that it automatically downloads each song it plays to your computer in MP3 format. If you're specifically looking for new music, the Indy player is probably the best option.

Pandora is the player I've tested most recently, and so far it's my favorite. Rather than rating a stream of random music, you create a Pandora station by entering the name of a song or artist that you enjoy, and the player chooses music similar to your selection. Additional songs and artists can be added to give the station more variety. This gives the user more control over the music from the very beginning than the other players. A free account allows a user to create up to 100 different stations, which means that you can create a station for every mood. The music itself is a good mix of obscure and established artists, allowing you to find new music while still hearing plenty of old favorites. My only problem with Pandora is that there is no independent player, so you have to keep a web browser open to use the program.

The players described above are only a starting point for the music fan who wants to avoid the frustrations of broadcast radio. There are plenty of options out there, and the one that best fits your needs will depend on personal tastes, both in technology and in music. If you're a music fan, the process of finding a suitable player will be a very enjoyable research project.