For instance, Pandora suddenly knows who my friends are and what music they like. I think this has something to do with Facebook, since when it tells me one of my friends likes an artist or song, it pops up with their Facebook picture. I do not recall connecting my Pandora to my Facebook. Then again, I do not recall lots of things, so I could have done this. It has also been brought to my attention that Pandora could be lying about which friends like which artists. This could be to make me feel less like a weirdo for liking certain things, but that seems like unnecessary enabling on Pandora's part. There was an incident in which Pandora accused a friend of liking Creedence Clearwater Revival and she insisted she did not. I don't know who to believe anymore. (For the records, yes, CCR did pop up on my Pandora, but I told them I did not want to hear anymore of that. Who am I, a 50 year old man? Sheesh Pandora.)
Please note my awesome skills using Paint. You can also judge me on my stations all you want. To each their own I say!
Another excellent feature Pandora has added is they occasionally place the lyrics of the song playing under the song. This has caused me, more than once, to do a little chair boogie while lip-syncing. This is embarrassing when your boss comes into your cubicle and you are rocking out to Kings of Leon or something.
I think my favorite feature of Pandora, which I'm pretty sure they've always had, is that they tell you why they are playing a particular song, based on the songs you have "liked". For instance, when people ask me what kind of music I like I can now reply with confidence that I enjoy music with "basic rock song structures, subtle vocal harmony, major key tonality, and extensive vamping". That sounds SO much better then "Oh, I don't know...a little of this, a little of that. I enjoy show tunes and Jay Z, in other words." So, Pandora has taught me a lot about myself.
They also have embedded audio commercial breaks, which can be extremely startling. I don't need a commercial break about Plan B emergency contraceptives when I am just trying to bop about to Barbara Streisand.
Now, I wasn't lying before when I said I have an eclectic taste in music. I really do enjoy show tunes and Jay Z. But a word to the wise: don't try to add all your favorite music to one Pandora station. Instead of it becoming the most epic and awesome play list you could ever construct on your iPod, the station will inevitably just become all trance music, all the time. Trust me on this one. Jay Z and Hairspray do not play nice together.
