What? I can make my own radio station? Will it play what I like to hear? (Cause I have some pretty weird music tastes!) Will I have to annoying commercials? Will I be able to skip the songs I don't like? Will I be able to get stuff just for listening to the stuff I like?

And the answers are: YES, PROBABLY, A LITTLE, DEFINITELY, MOST LIKELY

There are a number of streaming radio stations out there on the internet and as a regular user of many of them, I am here to give you the pros and cons of each, and hopefully make your workday a little more enjoyable.

But first, here's a little reward program that will make these stations even more enjoyable. Go to www.stickyfish.com and register immediately if you stream music all day. As long as you use RealAudio (not Windows Media Player) you will be able to collect one point for every minute you stream (and double from certain websites) up to 480 minutes a day. That's eight hours for everyone out there too lazy to do the math. You can also collect "stickyfish" points for answering surveys, rating music in the "Smash or Trash" section, and referring new members. These points can then be used in auctions and sweepstakes. There's an auction everyday, usually a book, game, DVD, CD, or small electronic device. So far I've won a pair of earrings, the latest Wallflowers CD, a new Oprah's book-club book, a Beach Pack, and Nurse Betty on DVD. (And I've only been a member for two months!)

Okay, and now with the real list:

1) Echo - www.echo.com - Echo has been rated highly in PC Magazine for it's online radio, and there's good reason. This is an excellent radio with a number of good options. When you first sign-up you are given the option of making your own radio station, which accomplished by picking which genres and sub-genres you want to hear and picking your five favorite artists. Give your station a name and you're ready to go.

PROS: a large number of genres and sub-genres let you get very specific, add friends and then talk to them through the echo player when you're listening to the same station, write those friends pop-up "notes" while you listen to different stations, rate music by artist, album, and song to influence how often you hear them, skip songs you don't want to hear, no advertisements at present (DOUBLE POINTS ON STICKYFISH)

CONS: No pause function so if you get a call during a good song you're just not gonna hear it, the note function sometimes causes IE to crash on my Windows 2000 machine, they just don't have every album I want to hear, like anything by my favorite band Weezer, they used to have advertisements and they might come back.

2) Sonicnet - www.sonicnet.com - You can listen to their pre-set genres or make your own station by becoming a member. A large number of genres and subgenres to choose from.

PROS: They've got a little bit of everything and they're pre-set genre stations are large in number and very eclectic. I highly recommend Sonic Pop (World's Best Pop) and Broadway (Musicals) (DOUBLE POINTS ON STICKYFISH)

CONS: Stalls often, and the same three advertisements are played over and over again, and every five songs or so. If the player stops you can get it going again by hitting the skip button, but that stops working when you hit an advertisement. You can only rate artists, not songs or albums, and only on a zero to five scale (echo is 0-9)

3) Launch - www.launch.com - Launch is a really great radio program. They've got all the artists that I miss on Echo. There are a number of pre-set stations, along with fan stations for practically every artist known to man. If you like Weezer, you can listen to the Weezer fan station and hear the artists that fans of Weezer typically like.

PROS: You can rate songs, artists, and albums. Also, if you choose, you can "watch" your station instead of "listen" and Launch will play the music videos that fit your choices. There are artist pages with news and discography for each band. (DOUBLE STICKYFISH POINTS WITH WATCH OPTION, NORMAL POINTS WITH LISTEN OPTION)

CONS: Still stalls sometimes and I have to resort to hitting the skip button after every song or restarting the program. Shorter advertisements than Sonicnet, but they're still there.

And in conclusion?
Personally, I still listen to Echo the most because it has the fewest bugs in the player leading me to the most hassle-free listening experience. And they still play the music I really like, even if they don't have Weezer yet. But if Launch can fix their problems I might just have to become a convert. Especially since "watching" my station is so much fun. With this nice big monitor I can work on one half of the screen and watch videos on the other half. Sonicnet is fun every now and then because they're the only ones with a Broadway station, but the advertisements bug me and I have to restart the player too often.

Recommended: Yes