Jerry shared a music service with me today--and he probably shouldn’t have. Not only will it steal time from my life, it will steal money from my pocket.

Pandora is based on the Music Genome Project--the attempt to categorize songs not by genre or audience, but by music similarities. Based on artists and songs that you choose, Pandora plays music that it thinks you will like. Your feedback (I like it or I don’t like it) helps refine the service based not on a social standard (you might like this because other people with similar taste like it) but on an individual standard (you might like this because it fits your personal musical quirks).

This is what it answered when I asked why it was playing a specific song (and, yes, the answer changes song by song).

Based on what you’ve told us so far, we’re playing this track because it features hard rock roots, blues influences, a subtle use of vocal harmony, mild rhythmic syncopation and repetitive melodic phrasing.

So far, Pandora has played Screaming Trees, L.A. Guns, Wilco, Mark Lanegan, Dire Straits, Afghan Whigs, Frank Black, Spin Doctors, The Novells, The Chemistry, and Amalgamated Sons of Rest--most of which I’ve heard of and like and most of which I didn’t suggest.

Pandora is even nice enough to link purchases through iTunes or Amazon for me. Oh, yes.

Even as I type, the service has moved on to “Dogs” by Page France (who I’ve never heard of). Why?

Based on what you’ve told us so far, we’re playing this track because it features mellow rock instrumentation, folk influences, a subtle use of vocal harmony, mild rhythmic syncopation and a twelve-eight time signature.

And they’re right. I like going from L.A. Guns to Mark Lanegan to Page France.

Yeah, this is going to be like a vampire sucking the hours and the cash right out of me.

Check out Pandora for yourself.

Update: Hey, look! I gotta gold star! How the heck do I put this up on the refrigerator?

And this looks like a gold star, too. (Apparently David J was a misstep; I should have been TBFKAZ.)