Spotify has already been covered with its wide variety of easy to access tunes — what is next? Instead of jumping right to Grooveshark, which seems mostly similar to Spotify in more ways than it is different, we are going to hop to a music player that is a little bit different (but certainly more familiar) than the rest. Introducing Pandora, the music-streaming radio that will take your likes and dislikes into account when choosing your music for you.

In 2012, it was estimated that Pandora had over 150 million users. The player contains 80,000 artists in its library, around the same amount or even more than Spotify.

Not too exciting? There is really no way to decide which song plays next and which one never gets a chance to take the stage other than clicking the thumbs-up and thumbs-down buttons. Pandora requires an account to operate after a certain amount of plays, and yes, your skips WILL run out. So save them for the stuff you REALLY hate. The gist of it is, put the artist you like in, and it will come up with a nice radio according to that artist — singers and bands like them, the same genre, etc. Not all music listeners like this method, especially if they want to listen to a specific song. It is impossible to get one into the queue or even decide if it will ever play or not. Despite these obvious downsides to this music-streaming player, many people like it and maybe even prefer it over other music players.

Despite knowing exactly what song and what kind of music we want 99% of the time, there is that 1% of the time where we actually have no idea what we are in the mood for, when we are tired of listening to that old album and done waiting for the new one to come out… (Seriously, it has been two years?) Pandora brings forth a new option. Putting in that same-old artist that you have had on replay, and it will find others like it. Yes, there is no chance of deciding what will come on and when, but if you are bored and in the mood for exploration, there is no harm to it.

Pandora is a great way to find new bands that are similar to the ones you already love, and broaden your music library even further. Even if you are a picky listener, you can click the dislike button, and it will help you to avoid similar songs. Although sometimes the music can get a little off-track from what you originally planned it to be, new roads most always lead to good places. This is a chance for people to find an entirely new artist, genre, or song they like, and a good way to cast aside those washed up lyrics for a bit and spice up your tunes. The best part of all of this is that it is completely free. Even though the ads are relentless and your skips are limited, it is less finicky than Spotify, with its tendency to kick people out and ban you from listening to a certain amount of music.