Most people’s iTunes libraries are filled with their personal favorites, popular tracks and some selections they hope no one will ever catch them listening to. But there are also times when that carefully crafted mishmash just isn’t enough.

Created in 2005, Pandora was supposed to solve that problem. And it often does … for 15 minutes. After that, it invariably throws out something that may in fact be new, but is decidedly not what you were looking for.

Aiming to give users listening choices that more closely align with what they actually want, three newer websites take the best of Pandora and iTunes but eliminate some of their imperfections.

Stereomood (www.stereomood.com) is founded on the premise that people look for music that suits their emotions. The site offers users categories in which to place their moods and activities, ranging from “asleep on my feet” to “busy as a bee.” Each mood or activity has a corresponding playlist, and after completing an easy and free registration, you can build your own playlists. Once you build a playlist, it is shared with other users. The idea is that as the site becomes more popular, the number of moods available will expand, and people will be able to log on and easily find their ideal playlist.

Like Stereomood, 8tracks (www.8tracks.com) is also user-driven. Users create mixes and then others can browse those mixes. The website also offers the opportunity to comment on mixes by other users and “like” songs a la Facebook, adding them to a list of favorites that you can return to later. Where it differs from Stereomood is that its featured mixes are more like mix tapes than mood-inspired playlists. They have titles like, “Music Your Parents Partied To,” “Kneel Before Your Party Overlords” and “So This Was 2010.”

Slightly better known than Stereomood and 8tracks, Grooveshark (listen.grooveshark.com) is structured like a search engine. When you first go to the website, you type in the name of a song or artist. Unlike Pandora, which does not immediately play your song of choice when you create a “station” based on that song, Grooveshark allows you to listen to the song you initially select. You then have the opportunity to manually search for more songs, or you can select the “radio” option and Grooveshark’s software will automatically choose more songs similar in genre, sound or artist to your first choice. While the Grooveshark experience is more like listening to music on Pandora or in iTunes than Stereomood or 8tracks, it is easier to customize than Pandora and is worth a try.

All three sites will allow music aficionados to share their one-of-a-kind playlists with others or pick up new tunes for themselves, even when they think they’ve heard everything out there. But the sites are also useful to non-audiophiles, allowing us to expose ourselves to something new without having to click past song after song that we don’t want to hear.

Most people’s iTunes libraries are filled with their personal favorites, popular tracks and some selections they hope no one will ever catch them listening to. But there are also times when that carefully crafted mishmash just isn’t enough.

Created in 2005, Pandora was supposed to solve that problem. And it often does … for 15 minutes. After that, it invariably throws out something that may in fact be new, but is decidedly not what you were looking for.

Aiming to give users listening choices that more closely align with what they actually want, three newer websites take the best of Pandora and iTunes but eliminate some of their imperfections.

Stereomood (www.stereomood.com) is founded on the premise that people look for music that suits their emotions. The site offers users categories in which to place their moods and activities, ranging from “asleep on my feet” to “busy as a bee.” Each mood or activity has a corresponding playlist, and after completing an easy and free registration, you can build your own playlists. Once you build a playlist, it is shared with other users. The idea is that as the site becomes more popular, the number of moods available will expand, and people will be able to log on and easily find their ideal playlist.

Like Stereomood, 8tracks (www.8tracks.com) is also user-driven. Users create mixes and then others can browse those mixes. The website also offers the opportunity to comment on mixes by other users and “like” songs a la Facebook, adding them to a list of favorites that you can return to later. Where it differs from Stereomood is that its featured mixes are more like mix tapes than mood-inspired playlists. They have titles like, “Music Your Parents Partied To,” “Kneel Before Your Party Overlords” and “So This Was 2010.”

Slightly better known than Stereomood and 8tracks, Grooveshark (listen.grooveshark.com) is structured like a search engine. When you first go to the website, you type in the name of a song or artist. Unlike Pandora, which does not immediately play your song of choice when you create a “station” based on that song, Grooveshark allows you to listen to the song you initially select. You then have the opportunity to manually search for more songs, or you can select the “radio” option and Grooveshark’s software will automatically choose more songs similar in genre, sound or artist to your first choice. While the Grooveshark experience is more like listening to music on Pandora or in iTunes than Stereomood or 8tracks, it is easier to customize than Pandora and is worth a try.

All three sites will allow music aficionados to share their one-of-a-kind playlists with others or pick up new tunes for themselves, even when they think they’ve heard everything out there. But the sites are also useful to non-audiophiles, allowing us to expose ourselves to something new without having to click past song after song that we don’t want to hear.