PandoraJam: Experience Pandora Fully

Everyone likes music and wants to discover new artists to listen to. Pandora, part of the Music Genome Project, is an internet radio station that adjusts to your tastes. Pandora works by using both artists you like as well as your ratings of the songs it plays. The Music Genome Project is the power behind Pandora. They analyze songs for over 400 characteristics that make songs from different artists appealing to the same group of people.

PandoraJam from BitCartel turns the web based Pandora into a native OS X Cocoa application. In addition to providing a desktop interface, it also allows you to stream audio to your Airport Express so you can listen to it on your stereo and or record music for later playback.

When recording songs, PandoraJam can automatically add the recordings to your iTunes library and a playlist. All songs are tagged, include album art, and are ready to go for your iPod. It also will submit songs you listen to to Last.fm and even integrates with popular instant messaging programs (to provide “now listening” data), provides Growl notifications, and allows you to set global keyboard shortcuts. Currently if you have your AirTunes password protected, PandoraJam won’t be able to send audio, but the next version will include password support.

If you live in the US or UK (where Pandora is available), I highly recommend you try out the Pandora service and get PandoraJam to make for a more pleasant listening experience. PandoraJam is shareware and is available from BitCartel for $15. A demo version is available, however you can only record and wirelessly stream a few songs at a time.