January 15, 2007
BY EDWARD C. BAIG
Passionate about music? Most likely, then, you are open to discovering new artists and songs.
You may want to create masterful playlists or listen to instant radio that caters to your mood.
I've been testing a half-dozen music services that help you find fresh talent based on your Apple iTunes (or other) collections or reconnect you with music you haven't heard in a while. Although you already get buying advice inside iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody and other online music stores, the various services I've been trying are more extensive and are well worth checking out.
Besides, each is free, though some premium services cost extra. The ensemble:
Pandora is probably my favorite in the group, if only because it's the easiest to get going. Just type in a favorite artist or song, and Pandora ( ) generates an instant personalized radio station that's on the mark more often than not.
Pick "Send in the Clowns," and you'll be asked to choose the Frank Sinatra, Judy Collins or other versions. Pandora starts playing music that exemplifies the chosen style. Pick the Beatles, and you'll get material from the Fab Four as well as other acts.
Pandora comes out of the Music Genome Project created in 2000 by musicians and technologists. Since then, Pandora's team has analyzed more than half a million songs according to hundreds of attributes (melody, harmony, vocal performance, etc.).
It costs $36 a year or is free with advertisements.
Another winner. MusicIP ( ) says its MusicIP Mixer recognizes about 94% of the music out there, or nearly 26 million tracks, using mathematical formulas to match acoustic characteristics.
After downloading the free MusicIP Mixer, you tell it the music you want digitally analyzed (from iTunes, My Music folder, etc.), an operation that can take many hours if you have a sizable collection.
You then select a song, artist or genre to generate an instant playlist (based on your original selection) featuring music in your own collection.
You can send the playlist to iTunes or another application.
Half the fun is seeing which songs end up on the playlist. The $20 premium version of the software lets you create playlists of unlimited size.
This free application pores through your iTunes library to recommend songs you don't already own that are favorites of 20 Goombah ( ) members who most closely share your tastes. You can buy recommended tracks through iTunes, Napster or Amazon, but you must visit those sites to sample tracks, a time-consuming extra step.
Recommendations can be fine-tuned to get results that are similar to your iTunes collection or those a bit more out of field.
This cool, socially driven service from Britain compiles the names of songs you listen to (a process called "scrobbling"), then presents artists you might like and people with similar tastes (your so-called neighbors).
Songs you listen to appear on your Last.fm ( ) profile page; you can delete titles you're ashamed to admit you own.
Through downloadable software, you can send recommendations to friends and, for $3-a-month subscribers, create personalized radio stations.
This free playlist companion for iTunes (which incorporates MusicIP technology) works only on a Windows PC; a Mac version is coming. Still, I was able to use Soundflavor DJ ( ) on a PC with songs streamed from my Mac.
Every few songs, the software will choose tunes that are not in your collection. You can read a customer review from Amazon, buy the CD there or get the song from the iTunes Store.
A kind of buddy list for your iPod, iLike consists of a software plug-in called Sidebar that works with iTunes.
You also can visit for recommendations directly from the Web site.
The company tries to match you up with users who are fans of the same artists but won't necessarily pair you with people who listen to the exact same ones. Friends can share profiles and see what others are listening to.
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