Android and Internet Radio

I just recently took a giant stage dive into the 21st century early this month -- I recieved a smartphone for my birthday.  And not just any smartphone, a Droid X2, which has a dual processor as well as the Android OS.  Naturally, the first things I did when I got my new toy were:  set up my Facebook, create a Twitter account, and of course, find an Internet Radio app.  The latter has been a less than fruitful endeavor, so to help out y'all, I'm going to breakdown what I have discovered about the music apps I've been experimenting with on my phone.  This is an ongoing process (much like watching the entire series of "Numb3rs," which has also been taking up inordinate amounts of my time), so this will probably not be the last time I post on this.  To keep things short and simple, I'll just be commenting on three of the most popular apps:  Pandora, last.fm, and Jango.

• Pandora -- Arguably the most downloaded/used music application for smartphones, Pandora relies on what they called the "music genome," a program which analyzes the artist/song/genre input by the user and then generates recommendations based on the musical elements present in the selection -- things like the use of electric or acoustic guitars, the level of synthesization, composition in minor keys, etc etc.  The one thing I've found that the program isn't as great with comparing is the human elements in music, things like vocal quality, whether the singer is male or female, and how well-written the lyrics are.  Understandable -- those features are difficult to quantify into an algorithm and are highly subjective to a listener's preferences. 
• The upside of Pandora is that you can get pretty specific in what you're looking for because, of the three apps I'm reviewing, it's the only one into which you can input a song, which narrows the amount of info the program has to find/compare with in other songs. 
• Some downsides are, of course, the amount of ads which interrupt about every few songs.  You can get an ad-free version but you have to pay for it.  Another problem is that the process for adding to a station mix is kind of tedious in comparison to other Internet Radio programs -- you have to input an artist/song one at a time.  Lastly-and this is kind of a personal problem I encountered-the latest update does not work on a lot of Android-based phones.  Hopefully, this will get resolved with the next version.
• Last.fm -- As an in-browser radio, last.fm is my go-to source.  Rather than using a music genome program, with last.fm, a user goes to the site and locates artists that they enjoy.  Through the artist's page, you can add them to your personal Library (a Cloud library) and last.fm compiles them into a station for you.  In addition, from your library, you can create mixes and playlists, much like you would if you were working out of your own music collection.
• The pros of this approach is that the user has a fair amount of control and it's an easy, fast process to add music to your library.  The library also serves as a platform for last.fm to generate recommendations, as well, which you can listen to on a separate "Recommended" station.  In addition to access to custom stations, each artist has a station filled with similar artists, so users can discover new music through that method.  It is also entirely ad-free.
• The major con of last.fm is that, with the latest update, it became exclusively subscription only.  Prior to that, most users considered it to be the best Internet Radio app, prompting them to actual advocate the use of ads to generate revenue for last.fm rather than subscriptions.  If you want to try it out, there is a 50-song trial that you can use but after you've heard 50-songs, you automatically start getting charged the subscription fee.  And, if you're like me, you realize how fast 50-songs go by.
• Jango -- This is the app I've been using lately and, I must say, in general, I'm happy with it.  Jango uses a music genome program like Pandora.  Since you know what that's all about, let's get to the meat and potatoes:
• Good -- Unlike Pandora, it is really easy to add artists to your Jango station -- just click customize and you open a box that you type a list of artists into (separated by a comma) which are then automatically added to your play list.  While adding artists, you can also see who is already included in the mix and you can remove or adjust how often they are played.  Like last.fm, the Jango website allows you to explore new music --through artist bios and pictures --to add to your stations.  Jango also has a cache of pre-made stations ranging from genre-specific (Salsa, Indie Rock) to time-oriented (90s, Best of 2011) -- just in case you don't feel like creating a custom station.
• Not so Good -- Jango doesn't have near the selection that is found on last.fm.  On last.fm, artists range from extremely popular to the most obscure band out of Fargo, NY and on Jango, I couldn't find Nightmare of You which may not be the most well-known group but I wouldn't put them in the realm of obscure/local either.  Also, the station play can be repetitive but luckily, this is adjustable (you can select high variety, which reduces replays).  Finally, Jango does rely on ads for income but in relation to Pandora, it's not bad at all.  I think I had to listen to something like 10 songs before I saw my first ad.

I hope that helps narrow the field a bit.  There are hundreds of these apps, so hopefully, I'll find one that's a perfect fit.