Pandora Internet Radio

I know I'm late to the party on this one as people have been using Pandora Internet Radio for years. I recently discovered this, and I want to make sure those who don't know about it, or haven't given it a shot yet, are at least familiar with it. Pandora is a free service that lets you listen to some great on the Internet or on an app on various mobile devices. Since many of us writers love to listen to music while we write or edit, and we often have our computers out anyway (or, like me, your iPod on a wifi connection), why not take advantage of this? If you're already aware of this service, then there's not much in this post for you--though I do have a couple of cool heavy metal songs that will appeal to horror writers at the end of this post. If you've never heard of Pandora, or you've heard of it but never checked it out, I'll give you a brief overview.

As I said, the service is free. There are short ads every few songs, but that's it. Fifteen to thirty seconds later you're back into your music. That's much better than the two or three minutes of commercials you're forced to listen to on the local FM stations. And you can listen to pretty much any type of music. Simply type in an artist's name or the name of a song, and Pandora will create a station filled with songs that are like what you typed in. You can't choose what songs you're going to hear, but in my opinion, that's part of the fun. And you can create plenty of stations for your various moods and tastes. Among my stations, I have a Heavy Metal Writing station as well as a Film Score station for when I don't want lyrics when I write.

If your station plays a song you don't like or don't want to hear again, you can skip it, and Pandora will remember that you don't want to hear it again. You can't skip very many songs (only 6 per hour on one station, and 12 per day across all your stations), but if you choose your stations well, you won't have to worry about that anyway. Or at least I don't. Your millage, of course, may vary.

As I said earlier, I'm aware quite a few of you already know about this service, but if I can introduce just a few new converts, I'm happy. I absolutely love this web service. So, if you've never heard of Pandora, or have never thought about trying it, go ahead, click here, and give it a shot. Did I mention it's free? Anyway, until next week, happy writing!

P.S. Since I'm talking about music this week, I thought it would be fun to post a couple of songs that will appeal to the horror writers and readers (and heavy metal fans) out there. Enjoy "Fight 'Em 'Til You Can't" by Anthrax and "Sleepwalker" by MegaDeth.

Writing Prompt #37

Here is this week's speculative fiction prompt. I'm labeling it as horror this week, but take it whatever direction you choose. Have fun with it!

Subliminal messages in a popular song infect the world.

Music While Writing

Today I just figured I'd give an insight to the background noise I have on while I write. Why not, right? Like reading about the lives of characters, people like to know what other people are doing. It's why "reality" TV shows, entertainment "news" shows, and the like do so well. So I thought I'd give you a little insight into me. (Hey, who knows, maybe I'll be famous some day, right? Y'all will care then!)

I don't like to listen to music with lyrics that I can get caught up in. It's not that I don't want them to influence my writing; no, it's more because I don't want to stop writing and start enjoying the music. For me, at least, the music should simply be in the background. Luckily my choice of music, heavy metal, has many artists I enjoy where it's hard to make out what the singer is actually saying. It's perfect. I can listen to what I enjoy and not worry about getting too caught up in it while I'm creating. I also enjoy, for the same reason, listening to instrumentals such as movie soundtracks and Celtic and Irish music. They tend to make a good background noise option for me.

If anyone enjoys listening to music while they create something (doesn't have to be writing), post it in the comments section. If you don't like listening to music but prefer something else (even silence) post that, too. Until next week, keep reading and/or writing.