Pandora

I like Pandora. If you haven't discovered Pandora yet, then this can be your introduction. Pandora is an Internet radio station that basically chooses songs based on the type of artist, song or genre that you choose. It's all part of what they call the Music Genome Project. Essentially, they've dissected songs down to their very essence, or "genes" and grouped them together accordingly. For Pandora, "...these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony."

What results is a mix of songs to fit the mood you're in at the moment. We all have our different iTune or iPod mixes. The "Rainy Day" mix, the "Party" mix, the "Pump Up" mix. These are the mixes of like-songs we create to fit how we feel, or how we want to feel. For example, right now I am listening to my "Rolling Stones" mix. Along with hits by the Stones, Pandora plays the best from Jimi Hendrix, Tom Petty, CCR, The Doors, The Band, The Beatles, and Neil Young to name a few. You can also pick stations by song and genre, too. Other stations I have include Kings of Leon, The Temptations (for my Motown fix), Ryan Adams, Explosions in the Sky (instrumental rock that is great background music when you need to focus), Pearl Jam, Shinedown, Let it Snow (just for the holidays), and many others.

Since the music is streaming, you'll want a decent Internet connection to keep from having songs continually buffer. And hopefully you don't work at a place that blocks this sort of site. If you do--well, that sucks. Pandora has helped me through many a long days/nights at work. Hopefully it can do the same for you.