Hopefully you have stopped by Pandora.com and checked out their music service. It’s been around for a while but does a pretty good job and playing music you like…and should like. Pandora works with you first entering the name of a band, let’s say Kiss. Pandora plays a Kiss song then will play a song from another band, not Kiss, that is similar to the song they just played. Eight times out of 10 the next band will be on you know, even if you don’t know the song. Pandora claims they map their music based on harmonies and similar song traits…whatever.
Enter the new service FineTune (www.finetune.com). FineTune has replaced Pandora as my free music service of choice, at work and at home. FineTune is a huge database of music that you can search through and make a playlist. You pick the songs you want on your playlist and then it will play the songs from your playlist…but in a random order. The difference here is that FineTune only plays the songs in your playlist, so you don’t have to worry about hearing a song you don’t know and/or don’t like. You make a pool of music and it just plays.
Similar to Pandora though, there are rules. Like not playing artists too close together, no more than three songs from a single artist, and you can only skip a few songs per hour before you have suffer through them. But, in theory, since Fine Tune uses a playlist you created, you shouldn’t have to skip any.
Another nice feature of FineTune is the “I’m lazy” playlist builder. You start by adding three artists to a new playlist and then click the button. FineTune then fills your playlist with a selection of artists that are like yours. The lazy feature turns FineTune into a more Pandora-like service, but you can remove any songs you don’t want and use the lazy builder as often as you like.
A bonus of FineTune is the ability to share your playlists. You can search through playlists from others users and enjoy their playlists as well as your own. When you go and get an account - as I know you will - just search for MorningToast and you can listen to playlists I have saved. I recommend the “Monsters” playlist.
It’s free. It’s easy. And you have no excuse.
Oh yeah, and FineTune is Wii-friendly with a special Wii version of their online player that you can access with the Wii internet browser. Very handy.
