Pandora VS FineTune

Okay. I really was planning on reviewing my new He-man DVD, but I got sick the night after my last post, so much was pushed to the wayside. I'm feeling better now, and my ADD has moved me to bigger and better ideas (the adventures of Orco and Man-At-Arms will have to wait).

I'm a big fan of free music streaming sites. They're a great way to kill time at work and find a few new bands in the process. There's two that I use:

www.pandora.com

No, it's not a porn site. You begin by typing in the name of a band or specific song. Pandora then generates a random playlist that it thinks you will like based on whatever you entered. Each song played can be given a thumbs up or thumbs down. Somehow the Pandora genie takes your vote into account when choosing the next song. The idea is that the more you vote on songs, the more specific your playlist becomes.

Pros:

• Surprisingly, it's pretty accurate. I've had my account for over a year now, and I rarely get the errant song.
• Super easy to use. Once you log into your account you need do is turn on your speakers.
• Pandora has a huge library of songs. All genres, includes rare and live tracks.

Cons

• Pandora isn't perfect - it's good at figuring out what genre you may like, but you still get bands that rub. For example, I have to constantly give thumbs downs to the likes of Sum 41 and Fall Out Boy.
• Users are given the option to skip through songs, which is good (see above), but you can only use this feature so many times per hour. Which is bad.

www.finetune.com

I'm pretty new to this one. It's the same basic idea as Pandora, but much more specific. Instead of entering one song and letting it figure out the rest, users begin by generating a playlist of 45 songs. Think of it as an online mix tape. From there you can add as many more songs as you'd like.

Pros

• No Sum 41 or Blink 182.
• This seems to work better for more eclectic tastes in music since Pandora's song-generating algorithm focuses heavily on genre.

Cons

• You can only have 3 songs per band on your playlist. It makes sense - they don't want people just adding an entire album and playing it over and over. But still.
• I've had some trouble finding songs on Finetune. There's a ton of bands, but not always the entire catalog of songs, so it can be hit or miss.
• Again, you can only skip so many songs in your playlist at a time. This isn't too big of deal since all the songs were specifically placed there.