Music By DNA

Pandora internet radio (www.pandora.com) is a unique user-friendly concept birthed by Californian music geeks that allows users to create custom made "radio stations” based on commonalities shared by artists you love. Let’s say the user enters the Modern Lovers. The program analyzes a variety of the Lovers’ musical attributes — tonality, rhythm and instrumentation — and will stream songs that it deems possess similar qualities. It disregards factors like labels (both of the record and taxonomical variety), popularity and critical acclaim. Unlike most podcasts or online stations, Pandora keeps growing — each time you dislike a song, it hones its selections a little more to determine future offerings. It’s only legally available in the U.S. right now (it can be fooled by an American zip code like, say, 90210) but an idea this good can’t be held back by national borders.