Internet radio site Jango makes music social

Finding new music can sometimes be a struggle. There are only so many legal outlets for discovering new bands. Even with those outlets, it can take a whole lot of effort to sift through hundreds of mediocre bands in CD stores or on myspace.com to get to the good stuff.

Wouldn't it be great to have an easy place to get new music that you can almost guarantee you'll like, while also meeting other people who have your similar tastes in music? Enter jango.com, the newest wave in customizable, social Internet radio.

Anyone who is familiar with pandora.com or lastfm.com knows the basic gist of Internet radio; you type in your favorite artist and that creates a station which plays artists similar to that artist via streaming radio, thus introducing you to some more bands who you might like based on that artist. Jango has taken that concept to the next level.

"Our original goal was to create a music site that would easily allow you to create a custom radio station," said Dan Kaufman, founder of Jango. "Pandora's mission is to get people to hear new music. Jango is a free, easy way to play you what you want to hear."

The beauty of Jango is you can customize it with three settings: "popular favorites," "wide variety" and "happy medium." You can choose whether you listen to strictly the artists you type into a station, or if you want to branch out more and hear new stuff that is similar to those artists. But the most unique thing about Jango is its social aspect.

"When I first came up with the concept, I imagined faces showing up in a music player of other people who listen to that type of music," Kaufman said. It's been a year since Kaufman's original idea, and now it's being placed into action in a big way. When listening to a song, you can see other users on Jango who like that type of music as well. When you click on their face in the music player, it switches to their profile, where you have full access to all of their radio stations.

"It's an interesting way to find other things that you like through other people's tastes," Kaufman said.

After listening to someone's personal radio station, you have the option of sending a thank you note, which enables listeners to interact with other listeners in a more subtle way than, for instance, a Facebook message.

The beta version of Jango has garnered about 300,000 people who created a station and about 70,000 people who officially signed up by registering with an e-mail address and password. Using the site is completely free. A site like this that integrates music and social interaction is bound to be huge, especially among the college setting.

The official launch of Jango was Monday, Nov. 12, and Kaufman already has big ambitions for Jango.

"We're hoping that Jango will be 10 times as big as it is now within about three or four months," Kaufman said.

The main way of attracting new users will be through users inviting friends or sharing songs and stations. You can send people URLs that will take them directly to your radio station for immediate listening.

Could Jango be the next big thing in Internet music? To find out for yourself, sign up at www.jango.com and start listening.