They call it the Music Genome Project, which seems anything but modest. But in truth, Pandora Radio is striving towards an encyclopedic database of music to stand as the musical equivalent to the mapping of human DNA.
I rediscovered Pandora today, and decided it was too good not to share, though it's nothing new.
The process is simple - go to pandora.com, enter a song or artist you adore, and sit back and wait for an automated search of the seemingly infinite musical resources to present you with songs the radio thinks you will enjoy, based on similar influences and style of your entry.
Your entry becomes a 'station', and the radio will continue to play music based on your initial entry and the ratings you give - thumbs up or down - to the songs it chooses for you. With each rating, the radio shifts the playlist to your tastes.
For example, I entered Langhorne Slim, an artist I stumbled upon a few weeks ago but have not had the opportunity to fully explore on my own. Pandora played a song of his I hadn't heard yet, and followed up with "Don't Ride That Horse," by Old Crow Medicine Show. And, they gave this explanation:

"this track features folk roots, a subtle use of vocal harmony, acoustic sonority, minor key tonality and a vocal-centric aesthetic."

HOW DID THEY DO THAT? (I don't really want to know how, I prefer to believe that little elves are living inside the website, catering to my musical whims and thriving on my enjoyment of hand-picked selections.)
Go there now, enter the name of an artist you're secretly obsessed with or a song that keeps bouncing around your head, and let Pandora introduce you a world of music you probably don't have the time, energy or inclination to discover on your own.
As I said, I rediscovered the site today. It used to be my go-to whenever I had an internet connection but no music of my own, or just needed to hear something new. Then, for whatever reason, I stopped visiting the site, and finding it again was like running into an old friend on the street you never meant to lose touch with. The only good thing about the temporary absence of Pandora in my life - it's actually saddening to think of the music I missed out on during that dark time - is that the interface has really been amped up, offering many new features I have yet to familiarize myself with.
The beauty - well, one of the beautiful aspects of Pandora - is that when you create a free account, your 'stations' are saved - every artist or song you enter is saved as it's own station, or you can add more to an existing station to filter search results.

To summarize:
What: Pandora Radio and Music Genome Project
Where: Pandora.com
The good: I've never entered an artist or song the engine didn't recognize, listeners can create new stations for each song or artist the radio plays by simply clicking on the menu of the song icon, and it's free. FREE.
The bad: No, you can't download songs from the site - when you close your browser, you kill the music. And listener's cannot enter a song and expect the radio to play it - they're working around copyright issues, here, so be patient, your song will probably play eventually. And, it is highly addictive.
Bottom line: Tailor-made playlists, minimal effort on your part. Free. If you are looking to hear a specific song, just buy it from ITunes already.

CATEGORY: Music

TAGS: pandora, playlist, music genome project

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Not long ago, the Time Warner Cable viewership was introduced to the Planet Green channel - probably one of the reasons I decided not to cancel cable and save $40 a month, whether that was a good decision or not remains to be seen.
I won't go so far as to say I'm a devoted follower of the channel, though I can sincerely say that every time I stumble onto the channel I find myself fascinated by whatever is being covered, usually a 'my home is greener than yours' special or a 30-minute showcase on new green technology.
It was Planet Green that introduced me to green roofs, and now I am hooked on the idea. Cities create thermal hot spots, where heat reflected and released by clusters of structures in cities are like bulls-eyes on an eco-unfriendly map.
That's where green roofing comes in. The basic premise is that all the wasted roof space in urban areas can be covered with low-maintenance vegetation, solving or at least sginificantly reducing the heat problem, the runoff problem, the air pollution problem and the aesthetically unappealing roof problem.
(Man, we have a lot of problems.)
In late June, New York State legislation established a tax break for building owners - individual homeowners included - who developed and maintained a green roof. A one-time reduction in property tax of up to 25 percent of the cost of the green roof, (the abatement tops out at $100K).
The roof "must sustain two inches of growing media and cover at least 50 percent of available rooftop space," according to greenroofs.org. That sounds easy enough.
Of course, the catch is that the tax break is only available in cities with a population over 1 million.
Do you know how many cities in New York State boast a population of more than 1 million people?
One city.
New York City.
I shouldn't have been surprised, and I guess I wasn't - just severely disappointed.
The combined population of the largest upstate cities in the state, (Albany, Buffalo, Cheektowaga, Rochester, Schenectady, Syracuse, and Utica), does not even break the one million mark.
So, what's up NY? Why can't I get a break on my green roof?
No, I don't have a green roof. But I would if I could get paid for it!
Ok, no, I probably wouldn't. Gravity dictates that it would be tough to install four inches of sustainable vegetation on a 45-degree pitch, and I'm not a property owner, so I would not get the tax break anyway.
That is clearly beside the point.
Since I moved back to New York with my fiance in February, I have heard the same question being raised continuously: why can't we get people to stay here?
"Here" can be anywhere, but in this case, "here" is Syracuse. People don't want to stay here.
Does anyone else see the disconnect here?
If every resident of the aforementioned upstate cities owned property, (which they don't), and installed a green roof on said properties, the state would spend less than one-eighth of the amount they stand to spend if the same situation were to occur in New York City, (and it won't).
So, why aren't our efforts as worthy of financial abatement as those of NYC property owners?
Is it because NYC's pollution problems are that much worse than ours? Ok, New York, give us a little time and keep those tax incentives just out of reach, and we'll get there, too - and then you can spend twice as much to fix the problem you could have paid us pennies to prevent.

CATEGORY: Environment

TAGS: green roof, NYS tax incentive, syracuse

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