Opening the box

Dave and his friend Davey, courtesy of other friends, introduced me to musicovery recently, and I spent a few hours there checking it out. As a "radio station", it's pretty good. I have a couple of issues with it, though. First, I think they categorize some artists incorrectly: The Eurythmics are pop or electro rather than rock, and George Michael should be pop as well, for example. They'll probably get that worked out eventually. Second, I'd like very much to be able to input an artist or an album and have it map out all the songs so I can see where they fall. I realize this may be outside their mission as a music player, but it seems like they should have the ability to do this sort of thing fairly easily. It would be very handy. Third, they seem to be somewhat limited in their selections- there were a lot of my favorites missing or at least hard to find. Also, I vote they have categories like "indie" and "alternative rock". However, I know it's beta, so there's still hope. It's pretty cool.

Another site which deserves notice is Pandora. You put in a song or an artist you like and it creates a radio playlist based on its musical characteristics. You get to say if you like or dislike each song, and it continues to learn from your input. This is great for me- I'm learning a lot about what's out there and there's so much to listen to. It's not perfect, either, but is a straightforward and linear exploratory tool that is a good companion for musicovery fans.

Try them out, but be careful. It's all very addictive.