Pandora's Tray...

This is very cool.

I've hit a musical listener's block (the equivalent of writer's block, except that I don't know what new music to explore).  The solution is Pandora, where I can throw the name of an artist or song that I am in the mood for and it will leverage the Music Genome Project to find music of similar ilk, then play it for me in a virtual online radio station.

Anyway, that probably isn't news to you, but check out this free application that I found on Jeff Sandquist's blog.  If you use Pandora you'll probably notice that you have to keep a browser open to listen to the Pandora online radio.  With "Pandora's Box" though you can minimize Pandora to your application tray.

Here's the catch:  Our Irish Friend (software developer Daniel Mackey from Cork, Ireland) discloses that there is no connection with the Pandora people.  The problem is that funding models Pandora uses are either ad-supported or subscription-based.

Here's the solution:  Pandora should get in touch with Daniel and work out a licensing arrangement so that some sort of subtle pay-for-use version is available as well as a version that maybe pops small ad bubbles in your task tray.  Don't get me wrong, this defeats the purpose of keeping it off the screen, etc., but you have to respect the fact that Pandora has costs in running this great service.  If you're not willing to pay the $3-$4 per month for this service, then you should be able to put up with the odd ad.

By the way, I am now looking at the Squeezebox (on the right)... very cool looking, and it plays Pandora content directly.