Looking at music

andora is a fantastic free radio station on the web that you can train to play the sorts of music that you like. Simply add a few of your favourite artists, and it will create a playlist of similar musical styles, offering explanation, if you want it, of why particular tracks have been included.

Adding Brian Eno, for instance, will find music that contains "electronica roots, ambient soundscapes, off-beat style, repetitive song structure and intricate rhythms". Laurie Anderson leads to "experimental sounds, mild rhythmic syncopation, repetitive melodic phrasing, extensive vamping, and dynamic female vocalists". Steve Reich leads to.... Steve Reid, who isn't the same at all, but you can't have everything.

You can even create different playlists for different moods, though you can't download the music. If the adverts annoy you, you can pay for an ad-free version, but otherwise, at least for just now, the two versions are identical. No additional features are unlocked through subscription.

There's only one problem, but it's a big one. If you live outside the US, you can't register, because their licence currently doesn't cover them in other countries. And you can only listen to a few tracks before the requirement to register kicks in. Damn. I was looking forward to discovering new music.

There is an alternative, Live Plasma, which suggests links between bands, artists and films using a clever visual system, like the excellent visual thesaurus. It's based on Amazon's recommendation system, however, which doesn't appear to be nearly as sophisticated as Pandora. There is no direct way of testing whether you like the suggested artists, but it does provide links so that you can buy items from Amazon. Isn't that kind?