Well, in my quest to find a replacement for Launchcast, I'm so far really leaning towards Slacker.com. I love the idea of Pandora, but the sound quality is a little low and there are so many bands it hasn't heard of. Also, it only works intermittently on my work computer. With Slacker.com, the quality is high and their catalog is startlingly deep for the music I like (The Cucumbers! Harpers Bizarre! The Astropuppees!). I also like the manner in which it suggests music you might like, so much easier than the multiple page reloads required on Launchcast.

And unlike Launchcast and Pandora, it really responds to my OCD-like need to control my playlist. Almost too well at the moment since I've just started programming it and am starting to get repeats.

Unfortunately, the free version is a little underpowered: you can only select 100 songs (but as many groups as you like) and you're stuck with ads. So if I'm sticking with it, I definitely need to pay up. The price is $4/month, which is $1 more than I was paying with Launchcast, but not bad at all considering how much I'll use it.

I'm also very intrigued by their portable player, which picks up a bunch of new songs from your playlist anytime it's near wi-fi or plugged into the net, so you can take your customized radio station with you anywhere. That's just genius.

Before I bite that bullet though, I need to give Last.FM another shot.