Discover why you like music

Everyone has a favorite music artist-the artist that just gets you time and time again. They never grow old. But what is it about that artist or their style that has you mesmerized? Is it the minor key? Or maybe the use of electric guitar instead of acoustic? Now there is a way to identify what exactly you love about that particular artist and that style.

If you don’t know music very well, Pandora Internet Radio can help you understand the technicalities of your likings. Pandora.com, created by the Music Genome Project, has music analysts who, for 25 hours a week, listen more than closely to music: they analyze each song down to data points, labeling the singer’s voice, the drums, guitars and hundreds of other factors within the song.

For example, upon typing in Alanis Morissette, Pandora will give you a Morissette song explaining the key features analysts discovered in her style. Next, Pandora will choose a new song, explaining: “We will play ‘Napoleon (live)’ by Ani DiFranco because it features acoustic rock instrumentation, acoustic sonority, a dynamic female vocalist, acoustic rhythm guitars and many other similarities identified in the music genome project.”

The free Internet radio allows you to give each song it presents a thumbs up or thumbs down. If the listener gives a thumbs down, the song is taken off the list. This allows listeners to find new artists with similar styles.