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[Kid Carnival]

in case any of you don't already know, pandora is freakin' amazing. enter band name or a song, it'll match you up with other music like it. its hard to explain, but its freakin' awesome.

um... and whats this about saving internet radio? a part of me would die if I lost my thai disco station on shoutcast...

[alongwaltz]

I rarely listen to pandora because I've got such a vast quantity of mp3's already on here but, yeah, if you're looking for some new artists to check out or are at work or school and don't have any tunes with you, it's pretty great.

It's like if radio were good.

[greenMonkey]

Every once in a while someone starts a thread about Pandora around here.  In fact we had one fairly recently (and so, to prevent further re-posting of threads we have recently had, please use the search function), where we debated the merits of Pandora vs the merits of Last.fm.

I prefer Last.fm.

[alongwaltz]

Does last.fm have a radio function?

I just use that site to track what I listen to and look up which songs I should download from new artists who aren't listed on AllMusic.

[casull]

Yeah, yeah, it does. Hence the 'fm' bit.

[Spinless]

I gave up on all recommendation sites because they are essentially useless.
Instead I check out whoever shares a label with whatever bands I like and take recommendations from friends. If a band make a fuss somewhere, I'll check them out too.

The thing about things like Pandora and Last FM is that they slow down the rate at which you are discovering new/good music. Which is fine for most people. I just happen to be obessive about finding my new favourite band.

[greenMonkey]

Honestly, I don't actually use a lot of the Last.fm recommendations.  I've started doing the label thing; Touch and Go and Dischord have some great catalogs.

[amok]

The thing about things like Pandora and Last FM is that they slow down the rate at which you are discovering new/good music.

How does that work?

[Johnny C]

I would agree with what Amok quoted if it were phrased in a manner that made it mean the exact opposite.

[McTaggart]

By playing stuff that's similar to what you tell it to play you? Chances are you already know the majority of stuff that's similar to what you listen to.

The way I do it is to check out the labels, check out interviews where they might namedrop bands, get recommendations from friends and subscribe to two stores mailing lists where they mail me updates of what they're getting in stock each week. Forced Exposure's is pretty good if you're into that kinda thing, with little blurbs about each release, sorted by label.

[alongwaltz]

I seek out new bands through AllMusic recommendations, Last.Fm recommendations, music magazines, blogs, record labels, friends, compilations, and soundtracks.

I don't find AMG or last.fm to slow down the rate you discover new great bands at all.  That doesn't make any sense.  If anything, it greatly helps.  I can read about a great band in Filter but they might not be the genre of music I'm into.  Whereas if AllMusic says that this artist has released a 4.5 star album and they sound like Belle And Sebastian, Cub, and the Magnetic Fields, I'll be pretty damn sure that I'm going to love them.

[ScrambledGregs]

I use last.fm because I want to be judged on my music and make random friends because of it.

[Johnny C]

By playing stuff that's similar to what you tell it to play you? Chances are you already know the majority of stuff that's similar to what you listen to.

INCORRECT

I like the label idea; in fact, I endorse it heartily. But really I went through the effort of putting four different artists I felt like listening to into the station attributes. Result: dozens of songs I didn't know existed!

Easy! You should all try it.

[John Curtin]

I use last.fm because I want to be judged on my music and make random friends because of it.

Also because playing music through computer speakers from 192 kbps iTunes AAC files is what I prefer compared to playing CDs through my high quality stereo system, so last.fm obtains an accurate record of my listening habits.