Have you noticed all of the new tools online designed to help us discover new music based on what we like to listen to and what our friends like to listen to?

Sure it can be said that people are telling each other about music on myspace and a mountain of other social networking sites.  But that’s not really what I’m talking about.  There are some neat little widgets and plug-ins and tools that are specifically focused on presenting me with new music that I might like.  Here are a couple I’ve been noticing and using a lot lately that you might want to play with:

MSN Messenger "What I’m Listening to" status message:
When you turn this feature on in MSN Messenger, the song title and artist of whatever is currently playing in your Windows Media Player will appear next to your name on all of your friends MSN Messenger contact lists.  It’s sort of like using a ringtune to let everyone sitting within earshot of you on the train know that you’re a "Gold Digger", except this is visible to people who have added you as an MSN Messenger contact.

Pandora custom radio stations:
You can see some of my Pandora stations in the left column of this page.  Pandora is this really sweet Flash-based radio station builder based on the Music Genome Project.  You start with a song or artist that you like, confirm that Pandora has understood you correctly by listening to a track, and then Pandora starts to recommend other songs and artists from its library that have similar characteristics to the music you started with.  A bit difficult to explain, but the brilliance of the user interface makes it a breeze to play with.   Not only can my friends and I send our newly built radio stations back and forth to each other, but through the smart thinking of Pandora and Typepad, I can share my most recent stations with all of you here.  Just click on one of my radio stations on the left to get started, and you’ll be building your own radio stations in less than 5 minutes!