Pandora is AWESOME!

Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 10:22 pm

I decided to crawl a little further into the modern age and looked up online "radio stations".

Pandora came up on my Google search.

All I did was register (only required if you want to save your "radio stations") then I put in AC/DC as my favorite performer and I have been rockin out ever since to an awesome, automatically selected for me, play list.

So if you have some headphones, or good speakers, I would recommend checking out Pandora.

Listening to GnR's "Welcome to the Jungle" right now.
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serleran · Post by **serleran** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 10:58 pm

Mildly impressed, so far. They actually had some of the stranger bands I would listen to available.
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Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:11 pm

Yeah, you list your favorite song or performer and they play songs "similar" to your input. I have been listening for hours now since just putting in AC/DC and they have yet to play a song I didn't like.

No ads, either. No "disc jockey", just great rock n roll music.
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narpet · Post by **narpet** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:12 pm

I've been using it for about a year... and all in all it's pretty great.

Once you create a "channel" it does a pretty good job of picking music that fits the style that you've chosen (whether by listing one or more bands).

However... it can also pick some pretty wonky choices sometimes. I have a Rush channel (big Rush fan for over 30 years)... and the choices it makes (other than the occasional Rush song) are generally pretty bad. All of the rest of my channels are pretty good though. I have a Velvet Underground channel that is amazing... a Hawkwind channel that is great (I was impressed by how much Hawkwind they actually have in the first place)... a Grateful Dead channel that is spot-on.... a Beatles channel that is perfect... and a Pixies channel that does a pretty good job. So, basically Pandora does a good job most of the time.

Anyway... I ramble... the point is I really enjoy it

narpet · Post by **narpet** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:13 pm

Treebore wrote:
Yeah, you list your favorite song or performer and they play songs "similar" to your input. I have been listening for hours now since just putting in AC/DC and they have yet to play a song I didn't like.

No ads, either. No "disc jockey", just great rock n roll music.

The more you listen... you will begin to see ads. They come up instead of a next song and you can't stop them. But they are short and not really that annoying.

Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:48 pm

narpet wrote:
The more you listen... you will begin to see ads. They come up instead of a next song and you can't stop them. But they are short and not really that annoying.

See, or hear? I have seen ads for McDonalds, Netflix, and the like, but I have heard nothing.

Even so, as long as they are short, I don't care. Now if they are like normal radio ad "blocks", then I will get annoyed.
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Frost · Post by **Frost** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 12:02 am

Yes, Pandora is fantastic. I helps me get through the work day. I've been using it for years now.
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serleran · Post by **serleran** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 12:21 am

I won't be able to use it during my work day, blasted to hell.
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narpet · Post by **narpet** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 12:59 am

Treebore wrote:
See, or hear? I have seen ads for McDonalds, Netflix, and the like, but I have heard nothing.

Even so, as long as they are short, I don't care. Now if they are like normal radio ad "blocks", then I will get annoyed.

I don't know if they've completely worked out their system of advertising. for a while there would be ads that showed up as the next song... but would have a static picture... like maybe a credit card ad... and there would be a short 15 second blurb... so, yes you would actually hear it.

With that said I haven't heard any of those types of ads in several weeks, so they may have given that type up.

ssfsx17 · Post by **ssfsx17** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 4:25 am

Tree, you are a hero!

Some of the artists' names are not spelled correctly, e.g. Fat Jon is listed as "Fat John," but wow this is way better than just blindly following links on iTunes!
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AslanC · Post by **AslanC** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 5:42 am

Not available to Canadians without some hacking that I am wary of
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Lord Dynel · Post by **Lord Dynel** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 9:04 am

My firend found this a while back and though I haven't investigated it myself, from what he says it's pretty cool. They seem to have a good mix of stuff, too, which is nice.
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Technomancer · Post by **Technomancer** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 1:09 pm

Slacker is the same kind of thing, and I think it is better.
http://www.slacker.com/

You can ban artists or songs from a station (rather than just individual songs), and you can control how much you want each station to deviate from your playlist (you can set it so that a station plays nothing but what is on your playlist if you want).

Plus I have found that Pandora starts off good, getting pretty close to what you want, then all of a sudden it will start branching off on some strange tangent that you never intended.

Post by **Breakdaddy** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 1:21 pm

Word, Tree. Ive been using Pandora on my iphone for a while now. It's kickaisss. Bonus: you dont need to worry about ads on the iphone, even if they show up you arent just sitting there staring at them with your headphones on

serleran · Post by **serleran** » Sat Sep 26, 2009 12:44 am

OK, it just lost all points. I had to endure 30 seconds (I know that is not a lot) of commercial ad, complete with video... damn it. Maybe the longer I listen the fewer ads will be displayed, but I sort of doubt that.
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Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Sat Sep 26, 2009 1:37 am

serleran wrote:
OK, it just lost all points. I had to endure 30 seconds (I know that is not a lot) of commercial ad, complete with video... damn it. Maybe the longer I listen the fewer ads will be displayed, but I sort of doubt that.

Wow, the longest I have had to endure is 14 seconds at one time. With at least 20 minutes between them. So still way better then public or even sattelite radio.
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serleran · Post by **serleran** » Sat Sep 26, 2009 1:50 am

I'm giving them another chance... so far they've played a bunch of INXS and Talking Heads. Guess those are somehow similar to Oingo Boingo... and that is somehow similar to Creedence Clearwater Revival which is somehow related to Enigma.
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Post by **Breakdaddy** » Sat Sep 26, 2009 2:15 pm

serleran wrote:
I'm giving them another chance... so far they've played a bunch of INXS and Talking Heads. Guess those are somehow similar to Oingo Boingo... and that is somehow similar to Creedence Clearwater Revival which is somehow related to Enigma.

So stop using it and you wont have to complain about it anymore.
Or put it on yer iphone, there are no video commercials on it. If you dont have an iphone, it's ok if you dont tell me why they suck.

AslanC · Post by **AslanC** » Sat Sep 26, 2009 3:41 pm

Serleran how are you listening in Canada? Did you wind up doing the work around with download?

Is it safe?
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Lord Dynel · Post by **Lord Dynel** » Sat Sep 26, 2009 11:17 pm

AslanC wrote:
Serleran how are you listening in Canada? Did you wind up doing the work around with download?

Is it safe?

Did serl move, or has he been in Canada all this time?

Technomancer wrote:
Slacker is the same kind of thing, and I think it is better.
http://www.slacker.com/

You can ban artists or songs from a station (rather than just individual songs), and you can control how much you want each station to deviate from your playlist (you can set it so that a station plays nothing but what is on your playlist if you want).

Plus I have found that Pandora starts off good, getting pretty close to what you want, then all of a sudden it will start branching off on some strange tangent that you never intended.

Thanks, Techo! This sounds like soemthing I would be interested in.
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Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 1:52 am

I finally got one of those 30 minute ads for "Californication", on right after "Dexter".
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CharlieRock · Post by **CharlieRock** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 6:32 pm

There used to be an RPG Radio on the net. Played the background and theme music from all the nintendo rpg games from like Final Fantasy 1 and Legend of Zelda to recent releases like Disgaea 2 and FFX2.
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Malakor · Post by **Malakor** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 10:56 pm

also try. . . .

theradio.com

last.fm

and

Grooveshark.com

and of course, the old standard

live365.com

there are commercials on them, except grooveshark, which I've not heard any that i've noticed, but none of them are any worse than regular commercial radio
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aztecman · Post by **aztecman** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 1:52 pm

True - Pandora is the awesome.

If you have a Mac, you should really check out the plug in for Pandora called "Pandora Jam"
http://www.pandorajam.com

It allows you to record the streaming music from Pandora and pulls all the song information directly from iTunes. It even makes the Album artwork too! Just load it up on your ipod or other mp3 device...

Sweet,

Aztecman

serleran · Post by **serleran** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 6:22 pm

Quote:
So stop using it and you wont have to complain about it anymore.

I did, but not by choice. It was playing away and then just suddenly paused and would not leave paused status, and this was not even after one of their lovely forced commercials (though, I did have the pleasure of watching the same one six times in a row.) Even after having closed browsers, cleared everything, and even a reboot. Amazing service, that. Until then, I was sort of liking the weird random association of music... and even thought it had potential; but, if it's not going to play, I'm not going to bother.

And, no AslanC, I am not in Canada -- close, but not.

Quote:
it's ok if you dont tell me why they suck

It's OK for you you to not read what I post.

And, lastly, I don't have, or want, an iPhone which is not to say anything against them (since they seem to be kind of cool) but I don't want a portable phone... the more I don't hear one ringing, the happier I am. I certainly don't want anyone getting in touch with me any time they want to.

Thanks for the link, though. It was fun while it lasted. I'll check into some of those other online radio things... there has to be one that will work.
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