Of course, this kind of makes the concept of programming (in the radio sense) obsolete as well. PDs are stretched pretty thin these days, but I would think asking a PD to schedule music for a million or so stations would be asking a bit much (of course, they'd just make their MD/APD do it).

There are a few ways to handle this. Last.fm uses the main concept of "Web 2.0" - social networking. Basically, Last.fm lets you install a plugin to your audio player to track what you are listening to throughout the day. Why would people agree to this? The same reason they spend hours on Facebook and MySpace. The wacky kids like to share what they are doing with their friends. It's the same reason why people use twitter.

This process of Last.fm listening to what you listen to is called "Scrobbling". From all this data that they collect, they can establish relationships between songs. Users who like song A usually like song B - so when you ask to hear song A, they then suggest song B. That gives listeners their own "personalized station". Then they can listen to their friends' stations or stations that are similar to theirs. Throw in the ability to give songs a positive and negative ranking - and then all of the sudden Last.fm is able to give you a radio station that only plays the music you like, and even plays new music it thinks you like.

Sites like Pandora.com take a more scientific approach. At Pandora, a team of experts listens to every song they have available and breaks down its Musical Genome - just like DNA. To get started, Pandora asks listeners to enter a song or artist they like. After that, it starts suggesting music and asks listeners to give each song a thumbs up or thumbs down. Once it gathers a few rankings from you, it notices what fundamental building blocks of music you like. For instance, songs you like may tend to have "mild rhythmic syncopation" and "a subtle use of vocal harmony". Go ahead and check out the site to find out why you like the music you like. Also, Pandora seems to be more focused on uncovering music you've never heard of before. Pandora isn't as social or as widely popular as Last.fm - but it appears to have a more dedicated fan base. Listeners hang around three times as long at Pandora.

In addition, Pandora and Slacker are two personalized music sites that plan on releasing hardware players (like iPods) that will allow listeners to hear their favorite music away from the computer and in their car. Combined with Pandora on the Go - where Sprint phone users can use Pandora on their phone, and these services aren't competing with radio 5 years in the future - they're doing it now.

As always, AllAccess has my “The Net Untangled Tip of the Day” each weekday and a column on Website Wednesdays. So check back and together we’ll get our internet presence focused on keeping radio strong in this world of increasing competition.

Do you agree with me? Or am I full of hot air? If you have comments or any questions about radio websites – either general questions relating to the industry or the web or even specific (HTML, PHP, .NET, Javascript, etc.) questions, send me an email through http://Preppermint.net/contact . I’ll answer your question quickly and maybe even use it for a future column.