Pandora radio

I have been playing with my Pandora station this week. Interesting process, but I think I have it pretty much tuned to my liking. This evening it has spit out the Misfits, Ramones, Sabbath, Exodus, Testament, Metallica, The Who and a bunch of Pantera. I'm still not sure how the Beatles keep getting in there, though.

Anyone else playing with it?

I love Pandora! Use it all the time. I bought a Squeezebox Touch for my main stereo and use it to stream Pandora quite a bit.

Just a tip- I make stations using band names. If you do a lot of "thumbs down" it tends to kind of mess them up. You end up with a load of weird stuff that only makes sense to some algorithm. I have a great station that plays tons of stuff I like, but insists on playing Social Distortion. I have the Pandora One account, so I can usually just skip to the next song, but wish it would stop doing it.

I have a bluegrass station that keeps playing ACDC. Otherwise its pretty good.

You can send the Social D to me. I <3 Pandora!

I have a bunch of band name stations ranging from punk to bluegrass to rap and when I get a song I don't like I just switch to a different station.

mtn wrote: I have a bluegrass station that keeps playing ACDC. Otherwise its pretty good.

I just died inside a little.

If I was allowed to listen to music at work, I would probably listen to Pandora. But I'm not. And my car only has a CD player, and my phone doesn't have Internet access. Sooooo...

I like Pandora. Training it to play only the guitarists I like has been an adventure, however.

Twin_Cam wrote:

mtn wrote: I have a bluegrass station that keeps playing ACDC. Otherwise its pretty good.

I just died inside a little.

I really don't get it. Doc Watson to Lonesome River Band to Kruger Brothers to Punch Brothers to... ACDC? How the hell does that work? I've hit that thumbs down button on probably the entire Back in Black album.

Note: I actually love that album, but not on my bluegrass station!

Keep in mind that while using Pandora on a phone, it eats data like crazy. I avoid it for that. Otherwise, its great.

I noticed that when I paid to upgrade to Pandora one the really random ones stopped happening altogether. It would play the Jam, Drive like Jehu, Apollo Up, Simon and Garfunkle then Jawbox, circus lupus...ect. Upgrading stopped Simon and Garfunkle from happening. I am a happier person because of it.

mtn wrote: I have a bluegrass station that keeps playing ACDC. Otherwise its pretty good.

it is a hint that you need to request Hayseed Dixie songs

N Sperlo wrote: Keep in mind that while using Pandora on a phone, it eats data like crazy. I avoid it for that. Otherwise, its great.

I'm kinda new to phones that actually do things (my old Blackberry was a POS), so maybe they all do this- my Droid switches to wi-fi automatically at home and at work. So it's not using up data from G4. Though, I did ask the IT guy specifically about it for use in the car and he said it shouldn't be a problem. I guess it all depends on your plan and such.

I have the entire hillbilly tribute to AC/DC on my phone. No pandora but a bunch of Earl Scruggs, Larry Sparks and Ricky Skaggs.

JoeyM wrote:

mtn wrote: I have a bluegrass station that keeps playing ACDC. Otherwise its pretty good.

it is a hint that you need to request Hayseed Dixie songs

+1.

fast_eddie_72 wrote:

N Sperlo wrote: Keep in mind that while using Pandora on a phone, it eats data like crazy. I avoid it for that. Otherwise, its great.

I'm kinda new to phones that actually do things (my old Blackberry was a POS), so maybe they all do this- my Droid switches to wi-fi automatically at home and at work. So it's not using up data from G4. Though, I did ask the IT guy specifically about it for use in the car and he said it shouldn't be a problem. I guess it all depends on your plan and such.

I listen to Pandora 8+ hrs a day, at least 5 days a week, plus streaming a few hours of a local radio morning show.

In addition to frequent web browsing, the evil book of faces, and other data-consuming apps, I've gone over 2gig/mo twice in the last year. As I'm grandfathered in an unlimited plan, it doesn't matter to me, but for most plans that are $xx/2gig + $x each additional gig, it would only be a few bucks because I've never gone over 3gig.

JoeyM wrote:

mtn wrote: I have a bluegrass station that keeps playing ACDC. Otherwise its pretty good.

it is a hint that you need to request Hayseed Dixie songs

• eleventy

One day, my Pandora station pulled out the Japanese shibuya-kei band Pizzicato Five. Not exactly mainstream or an obvious choice - but it's like it had peeked into my iTunes library and spotted the half-dozen P5 albums in there. Well done Pandora!

I listen to it all the time in the garage. There's definitely some cross-pollination between stations, but it keeps things interesting.

fast_eddie_72 wrote: I have a great station that plays tons of stuff I like, but insists on playing Social Distortion. I have the Pandora One account, so I can usually just skip to the next song, but wish it would stop doing it.

Doesn't sound like a problem to me.

I have only the free versions of Pandora and Slacker Radio.

I like them both, I have a few pandora stations I have put together I really like, and I kind of like Slacker's format with pre-set stations for different genres, not unlike what you find on satellite radio. But you can make your own stations too.

I have thought about getting a paid subscription to either, but cant really decide which, and I dont think I use them enough anyways to get my moneys worth.

It's pretty much permanantly on in the lab where I attempt to work. It took nearly a year to groom all the stations but it works well for the most part.

While we don't listen to the radio much at home, when I've used Pandora, it's quite good- the selection of Jazz they have on the couple of stations are really good.

And it's one part of the puzzle for me to get a smart phone- I have sirius, but don't like how the cost is going up, and my selections are not all that hot. So, it's part of the choice to pay the extra money for a smart phone.

In reply to David S. Wallens:

I have it on all day, every day at work. Jazz and Prog choices in particular are infinitely better than Sirius/XM.

Love Pandora. I use it all day, in the car, and on my phone when I workout. I found that the shuffle feature is a great tool, but you need to make sure the artist selected for it go together. For example, I have a wide range of taste in music, everything from rock, to old school rap, to country. But if you don't set the right stations and hit shuffle you'll be in the middle of a rocking workout song only to get hit with a slooooooow country song. Likewise, I don't want to be just cruising around with my family and some gansta rap come on.

Since we're also dropping band names, Dropkick Murphy's is my new go to station when I am working out at the gym though. They are the guys that did the Irish intro song on The Departed. The station is pretty good.

I can't seem to be happy with Pandora. I think it's because I usually listen at time when I can't like/dislike all the time to tune the station. Like when I'm at work or working in the garage. I seem to be better off streaming Accuradio or a web-broadcast of a real station somewhere that plays what I like.

Pandora has been great for discovering new-2-me music, but not as good as this board.

I have about 15 channels set up and depending on my mood I will listen to a specific channel. It is usually on shuffle though.