PandoraWho isn’t familiar with the standard household name of Internet radio – Pandora. Sure it’s a little bit of a pain to set up in the beginning, but then you’ve got your favorite music playing just for you – forever. If you haven’t set up a station it’s fairly easy – you type in a few favorite artists and it mixes those with similar songs, when you favorite a song it picks more of the same. One problem is that it likes to play music in sets. One Christmas station played “Jingle Bells” four times in a row – all from different artists true, but still way too much holiday spirit at one time.Pros: Easy to use, simple to set up.Cons: Not as much variety. Ads: Visual banners set up around the player that change with each song.Best for: DYI radio.

SlackerThe main difference between Pandora and Slacker is the advertising. Pandora’s are on the right, Slacker’s are on the left, but Slacker also plays audio ads every five songs or so. Listen to a little music, hear a little ad. It does have a slick black interface and more of the newer titles and some obscure music that you might not find on the other players. You can also set how much “discovery” your radio station employs and tell it to play just the “hits” or go for more “fringe” stuff. Pros: Ease of set-up. Cons: Ads, definitely the ads.Ads: Visual ads and audio ads.Best for people who want to purchase the Slacker player so they can take their online radio anywhere they go.

SeeqpodJust want to explore a particular artist? Use Seeqpod. Basically it crawls all over the Web finding music in places from little-known podcasts to releases by the artists themselves. There’s the PodCrawler tab which is full of random stuff, a search tab and then a discoveries tab where similar works from other performers are listed. It searches videos and audio. You can save a pod list and also publish one if you’d like. Great for a quick playlist that you only want to use once.Pros: Compatible with iPod and iTouch.Cons: Unless you save your list you’ll have to recreate it each time.Ads: Not really, just a little box at the top of the page.Best for people who want control over their playlist.

FlyCastWant to listen to radio, but don’t feel like making your own station? Flycast.fm indexes lists of stations by genre and even location. Sure there’s some content you’d need to pay for, but most of that is news or sports and the music is free. Miss your Kansas City radio station and can’t remember the Web site? Find the index on Flycast. The constant stream of ads is a bit annoying. The pop-up browser playing the stations alternates between album art and ads. There is no way to fast forward through songs you don’t like.Pros: Long lists of available pre-set options.Cons: Long lists of available pre-set options.Ads: Hell, yeah.Best for people who don’t want to make their own radio station.

last.fmGotta hear that one song from that one particular band? Last.fm is your answer. It’s got stuff organized by albums with links to videos. Although some songs are only partial recordings, it’ll list concert dates for whichever group you’re searching. You can also comment on songs so it gets a little MySpacish. As a radio station I’m not very impressed. You play it once and you’re stuck with it – songs add themselves automatically. It’s not so great if you’re just trying to explore. Pros: Plays everything under the sun.Cons: Throws anything you play into your radio mix.Ads: They exist, but as a couple slick buttons plugged into the interface.Best for those ‘I just gotta hear this’ moments.

NapsterWant a pre-made playlist or hear those top ten plays? Napster has you covered. http://free.napster.com/Of course, they want you to subscribe, but you do get a few free plays before that.

JangoJango lets you play pre-programmed music based on your initial choice of artist. You pick the first artist and they’ll supply the rest. www.jango.com/

MyspaceNo introduction needed here. Make playlists, find bands, visit with friends. www.myspace.com/