My taste in music is very broad, but it's also shallow as a puddle. I like a little of everything, but mostly I like the songs that represent any given genre. I never seem to get deeper than that. When I discovered The Music Genome Project, I thought there might be hope for me. After all, that's what was left in Pandora's box--Hope.
Pandora lets you design a radio station that plays artists who are similar to the ones you identify as your favorites. It is a subscription service, but I'm still enjoying my ten free hours.
Now here's my call for help. When my ten hours are up, how else do I find music that I'll like? How do you do it?
Here are a few ways I find new music (in no particular order)...
1. There are several music magazines out there that cover a wide range of genres, and are mostly record reviews. Some of them even come with compilation CDs so you can hear some of the stuff that's reviewed. Paste is the latest one I've seen, but a web search would no doubt turn up others.
2. Visit Amazon.com and plug in a band/artist you like. Scroll down and there are ususally recommendations for "if you like this artist, you might like this one too." Then you can follow the path to other artists and even hear song samples.
3. Find a music critic you tend to agree with and keep up with his/her music reviews. I discovered one of my favorite all-time bands that way -- Dan DeLuca from the Inquirer talked up the Shins, so I looked them up and fell in immediate love.
4. Search for a radio station in another market that plays a mix you like and stream it on your computer.
5. "I'll burn you mine if you burn me yours." Swap mix CDs with friends and co-workers!
i've been enjoying something similar to pandora called last.fm
it is free. it creates a commercial-free radio station for you to listen to based on the music you listen to on iTunes or an equivalent player. alternatively, you give it a band name and it plays music similar to that group.