1) Make a new Pandora station from something you normally don’t listen to a lot or don’t have in your music library but still like. (If you’re not familiar with Pandora, it’s a huge catalog of metadata about music. Not just by artist, but by track. So, if you really like “Hotel California” you can create a station with similar tunes. Pandora is an outgrowth of the music genome project that aims to fully describe all music. Impressive goal, and they’re mostly spot on.) I just created a station based on Dave Matthews Band. I don’t have them in my library, and I generally like their sound. I won’t say all the music that has come up has been a five star rating, but it’s been mostly good stuff. You can also add to a station in order to broaden the selection.

2) Swap iPods with someone. This one doesn’t really work for me since I have an iPhone, but maybe have a friend fill up a Shuffle with some of their favorite tunes that you don’t currently have. This is a great way to expose yourself to new music and to learn more about your friend in the process. A related practice (that I won’t recommend for Brett since he’s married) is a podswap. If you’re on the subway or bus and there’s a cutie sitting nearby, swapping iPod jacks can be a great way to strike up conversation without having to say a lot and you can learn a lot more about someone by the music they listen to than by most anything else.

Hope these ideas help, Brett. And when you do find some new stuff that is totally awesome, I hope you’ll send a heads up my way.