Your Choice of Flying Music

[Tom Goodrick]

Music makes those long flights more enjoyable. Now you can get just the music you like piped in from the Internet as you fly. The secret is
www.pandora.com
and it is available free with occasional radio-like ads or ad-free for $36 per year. I have been using the free version.

But the big deal is how it learns what kind of music you like. To start, you select a favorite band or performer from a big list. Then you listen to a few songs by that performer. The program picks randomly once in a while from its own list of similar performers and slips a new one in now and then. You can click "I LIKE" or "I DON'T LIKE" to steer it in the right direction. Soon you get a nice variety of music. At any time you can start the search in a different direction to mix in a slightly different sound.

For example I started with Dave Coz for some saxophone music. It added Grover Washington, Walter Beasley and Kim Waters. Then. after a while, I added trombonist Urbie Green. That brought in the trombonists and the big bands. Later I added pianist Brian Culbertson. Now I have a great mix.

This works fine while I fly FS9 on my laptop. If you were to look at my plane from Spot View, you might see it dance a little, weaving side to side with maybe a little roll now and then! (Wait a minute, they just threw in Rick Braun. How'd a trumpet player get in on this? Well, I guess he swings OK! Now we're doing "Soul Ballet" by R K Kelly. That's cool!!)

[flaminghotsauce]

My wife uses Pandora so much that we finally sprang for the paid ad-free plan. She has probably a dozen and a half stations so far. I looked around for internet radios but I couldn't find anything inexpensive enough to suit me. I only found a couple. So I put an extra laptop (any old wheezy thing will do as long as it's got wireless and the audio out works) in the kitchen and plug the audio out into a radio system that sounds WAY better than the price, and she's loving it. High quality audio, ad free radio of one's choosing, leading to great meals! So maybe I did all this for me? Heh.

What a great time to be alive.

[Ed Burke]

I read the above with great interest thinking, YES - THIS IS FOR ME, Wrong! Due to copyright concerns, Pandora is restricted to the Unites States, mumble mutter boo hiss .......................

[Tom Goodrick]

Just a quikie to say that I tested it today with a 75 minute flight using dynamic Real Weather. There were no problems, not the slightest hiccup. That amazes me.

[flaminghotsauce]

Ed, you might check out Grooveshark. It's a very similar system for Pandora-disablees. Restriction free.

[meryl]

Also 365live, or live365.

Meryl

[Ed Burke]

Thanks fellas. I have book marked those two and will check them out.

[Joe]

The 2010 versions of the Panasonic Viera TV's support Pandora (as well as streaming Netflix and Skype). Of course, mine is a 2009 . . .

BTW, WIRED mag rated the Viera 3D TV's above the Sony Bravia's, if anyone's thinking of jumping into that.

Ain't broadband grand?

[Tom Goodrick]

Yes, indeed. I just downloaded and worked the kinks out of a nice model of the Piper Aztec today with Pandora whispering smooth jazz in my ears all the time.

I have also been having a lot of fun with Google Earth. It's a great Time Machine. Wherever you've lived in your life, the places are still there (or you can find where they were). Some of the familiar places look different because tall trees are covering them. But many of the street camera shots take you right to the front door! I just found an old rooming house I stayed in at the University of Minnesota. One of them is now under a freeway but that one is still there. Only difference is it is now blue instead of yellow.

The Owatonna Airport (MN) where I watched my dad fly Champs and got my first flight in a Cessna 170 is where it was back in '48-'52. The airport is very unremarkable except for the sculpture out front showing three T-38's coming out of a sunburst formation. They are real T-38's on steel supports. That was always a magical place.

[Tom Goodrick]

Pandora is not as great as I thought. I turned it on this morning and got a message that I am nearing my limit of listening hours for the month. They pay royalties on all songs played. Those of us using the free service have a limit. Putting up with the ads is not enough.

I had also noticed the music was starting to repeat.

The free version llows only 40 hours of music "per month."

So it goes.

[Joe]

songza.com/

This is more a musical search engine than a radio station or player.

[Bill Hendrix (bgas046)]

Dec 3, 2010 18:06:18 GMT -5 Joe said:

songza.com/

This is more a musical search engine than a radio station or player.

Thanks Joe, I like this site cause you can choose the songs you want to hear without interruption.

[Ed Burke]

I agree, good site Joe, thanks

[Tom Goodrick]

Yes, so far it is better than Pandora. I haven't been told to limit my use yet. I started a Walter Beasley Station. He is one of the better but lesser known saxophonists, especially on soprano but his alto sax is very fine too. After the first few hours I did register a complaint. I had added 111 songs by Beasley and had not heard any of them. Now I get mostly Beasley. But I have voted in Brian Culbertson, David Benoit (both pianists), Peter White, the Acoustic Alchemy pair (both guitar) and a few other smooth jazz artists. You do have to pay attention and vote at first until your station gets going.