Chanatown

Article first published as Why I Still Heart Pandora Radio on Blogcritics. It's funny - I have been a Pandora user for years now, and was even considering purchasing some stock in the Internet radio company.  I had been monitoring the share price for a few weeks, but then noticed one day the price drop over 10%. A quick Google news search found the reason: an announcement of iHeart Radio's improved web application that included what was deemed by many as a "Pandora killer", the ability to create customized radio stations based on one's musical tastes.  So, how does the beta release stand up to one of my favorite apps? Will Pandora indeed be doomed? Find out after the jump.

Image via CrunchBase One of the first tabs I open on my browser is almost always Pandora .  If I'm going to be working on the computer for awhile, I want to have some tunes playing in the background.  Now, I have a ton of music loaded into my iTunes, so why would I turn to an application where I would be hearing ads every now and then?  Perhaps, it's because I don't quite have my iTunes organized well enough, but often, I'd rather listen to a variety of music and I just don't have enough of a mix in my personal collection.  Plus, I'm always eager to discover new artists, yet ones that have a sound similar to what I like.