Better than Pandora?

I know what you’re thinking – nothing can be better than Pandora! Right? (Insert only a small amount of sarcasm).

At the heart of it, I really like Pandora – or at least the idea behind Pandora. Getting music suggestions based on artists you’ve entered or marked as liked seems like a great idea. And sometimes it works great… and I’ll find a cool new band to get into. But the other 50-60% of the time, the “similar” bands that come up in the playlist leave me scratching my head.

With such an extensive database of user likes/dislikes you’d think the math behind the system could suggest artists I’d like while I’m listening to Dave Matthews Band. But no – instead I keep catching Pandora trying to sneak Matchbox 20 into that playlist. No dice.

One playlist I’ve loved listening to and almost never have to hit skip on is my Copeland station. Pandora always seems to find someone chill to add to that list.

So my question is – if Pandora is so hit or miss, when will someone come out with a 100% hit? Well I might have found it – www.thesixtyone.com. I’m only 6 songs in, so I can’t tell for sure, but I do know I love the design far above and beyond Pandora’s.

Plus the interaction is great. When you register for an account you’re given quests (like listen to 7 songs from the recently posted section). Each quest gets you more hearts (used as votes for your favorite songs) and reputation points. I’m looking forward to playing with the site. I’ll try to remember to post a review further down the road when I’ve had time to really explore. (as I’m finalizing this post, thesixtyone froze the Google Chrome window it was open in… maybe signs of future frustration?)

—-Update—-

I checked out the old sixty one .com and wrote some thoughts about it here.