Does Anyone Listen to Entire CDs Anymore?

I haven't posted in a while - been on the road for work quite a bit lately. I always listen to a lot of music when I travel - most of it is on my laptop (I know I'm lame, I need to get an mp3 player or an iPod... I'm a typical late adopter). Anyway, I've always been a fan of being able to listen to CD from front to back whenever I can. I've always hated buying a CD when one of the songs is good - and the rest stink. What a bummer that is. Inevitably, I end up not listening to that one song very much because it's just too much of a hassle to put a whole CD in for one tune and then to discard the rest of them. I realize that's the beauty of iTunes and iPods - you don't have to buy entire CDs - you can just pick the songs you want and load them up on your player - so you only have the songs that you like to hear and can sidestep all the other ones you don't like. I get it.

I guess I'm a purist at heart, though, because I think there's still something to be said for putting on an full length CD of an artist that you like - and getting a great musical experience from front to back - from the whole disc. In fact, I think this is often what separates the artists that stick versus the ones that don't. I have pretty large and diverse music collection, and there are many CDs that I love to listen to front to back. Sting. Mike Stern. Keith Urban. Jack Johnson. Sarah Borelius. Sanatana. Van Halen. Alanis Morissette. Bruce Hornsby. Many more. When I travel on planes, I prefer listening to full length CDs rather than a mix of individual tunes - I think it makes the time pass quicker. But I also feel like fewer and fewer new artists are coming out with CDs that actually have enough good material to get you through the whole CD. I can only count on one hand the number of CDs I've purchased recently of new artists where I could do this. So I'd really like to hear from you... what are you buying? Do you prefer to listen to a mix of music more often than a collection of songs by the same artist? If you prefer the latter, what are you listening to? Anyone new? Let me know...

An Amazing Pandora's Box of Music

Most of us have heard the term Pandora's Box. People typically use it when they are referring to something that is about to trigger a series of unknown surprises or events, oftentimes troubling ones. The term actually comes from Greek mythology, where Pandora was the first woman, created by all of the other Greek gods. When they created her, they each gave her unique gifts. (Actually, Zeus demanded the creation of Pandora as a punishment for mankind, in retaliation for Prometheus stealing fire and then giving it to human beings for their use). Anyway, Pandora became famous for carrying a jar (or a box) containing all the world's evils. When she opened it, evil would come out, but no one knew what the particular evil would be until she unleashed it from the jar.

Fast forward to the year 2000, when a group of musicians and music-loving technologists came together with the idea of creating the most comprehensive analysis of music ever - known as The Music Genome Project. The work is a truly amazing effort to analyze the DNA of music, and in doing so, they've created an incredible musical experience for people, allowing them to use a website to enter the name of a song or an artist, and then connect the musical attributes of that song or artist to similar characteristics in other songs and artists.

How do they do it? If you've ever shopped on Amazon.com, you're familiar with the analytical behaviors that Amazon has built into its site. After you make a purchase, say a CD or a book, Amazon will send you e-mails suggesting other CDs or books you might like based on other people who've made the same initial purchase as you - but who've also gone on to buy the newly recommended items. The underpinnings of The Music Genome Project are similar in nature - but just for music. And there's no store to sell stuff. Instead, the project has created a free web service - Pandora.com - where visitors can simply type in the name of an artist or song and receive entire catalogs of similar music. Even better, the site allows you to create a radio station (multiple stations, actually) based on what song or artist you suggest, and then the site will serve up a massive amount of commercial-free tunes with similar attributes. It's a true Pandora's Box for anyone who has a love for music - minus the evil from Greek mythology, of course.

When I first tried it out, I typed in Mike Stern - one of my favorite jazz/fusion guitar players - and the site created a station that served up not only Mike Stern, but other great jazz/fusion artists like Dave Weckl, Steps Ahead, Pat Metheny, etc. That was cool, but it's not like I didn't already know who those artists were - so no big surprise. So I tried the same thing with pop rock artist Jason Mraz - and after the station finished playing a live version of Mraz's The Remedy (very cool, BTW), it cued up a handful of great music by other artists with whom I'm not familiar at all - like The Calling (the song was Dreaming in Red); Five Times August (the song was Save It For Later); and Ryan Cabrera (the song was On The Way Down). Plus, I got descriptions of who those artists are - and links to other sites where I could purchase their music. And part of the beauty with creating radio stations is that you can just let them play in the background while you work - and without question, you will be surprised by great sounding music that you didn't even know was out there!

So if you're like me - you love music, and you're always looking for new stuff that is similar to other things you like, Pandora.com is just sitting there - waiting for you. I guarantee that you'll be pleasantly surprised - and rewarded - by what you get out of it. Check it out and have fun!! Pandora.com.