Eccentric friends – such as your hippie, rock-star wannabe or eternal groupie friends – and the radio have been the limited source of new musical taste tests for many people around the world for as long most of us can remember, with the exception of the numerous opening bands most of us don’t pay attention to.

It’s time for a change – it’s time to unlatch Pandora’s Box.

Pandora.com is the progeny of The Music Genome Project, which was founded by Tim Westergren.

Don’t be mistaken, however – Pandora is not merely a tool to find the newest songs and bands that are approaching or currently dominating the pop culture scene. Instead, Pandora wants to know what you are listening to now, and then wants to help you to find more music similar to your tastes, all by bands that you have most likely not heard of.

“I spent a lot of years pursuing a musical career, so I came face-to-face with the challenge that all musicians face – to get noticed among the tens of thousands of bands trying to do the same thing,” said Westergren in an interview published by Business Innovation Factory.

He also said, “I became very interested in how to solve the problem, from a musician’s standpoint, of how to find an audience – and, from a fan’s standpoint, of how to find music you like.”

Westergren has conquered just such a task. Pandora now boasts more than 2.5 million users since its launch in 2005 as well as approximately 500,000 songs.

Further accenting its appeal, Pandora utilizes a simple interface – simple enough for your grandparents – and it even carries music from their generation in its vast library. That’s right, anything from Backstreet Boys to Blues Traveler, Devil Driver to Hank Williams to Ella Fitzgerald is available. And unlike most other music programs, such as iTunes, Pandora does not limit you to a 20- to 30-second clip of songs; it allows you to listen to each song in its entirety. With over 400 possible attributes per song, encompassing everything from lyrics and vocals to guitar riffs and rhythm, and the 20 to 30 minutes it takes to capture all of those attributes, Pandora’s staff members have their work cut out for them, but they are definitely up to the challenge.