I sorta like music, but I don’t want to devote any of my brainpower to it. I’m terrible at remembering band/song names, I can’t sing along with any songs. I like what I like but I don’t want work at it. Pandora is (was?) perfect for me, because I can seed it with 20-30 songs that I actually know and it provides a few hours of music that I generally enjoy.
But it’s been 5 years now since I signed up, and despite the fact that I’ve been adding artists as I learn about them I still hear the same songs over and over again. I want to listen to the best 5 or 6 songs from a good album, not the same radio single over and over again.
I signed up for Spotify once but it seems like a lot of work, tracking down playlists that I like or making my own. I also have Amazon Prime Music I guess but that seems even more tiring.
What’s like Pandora but will offer me more variety?
There’s a button (at least there was the last time I played with Pandora) that you can hit when a song comes up that you don’t want to hear again for a while. Basically, “I like this song, but don’t play it again for a few weeks”.
I’ve noticed with Pandora that if I “like” a song, it pops up all the time, almost regardless of the genre. My new policy is that I never like a song, I only dislike the ones that I don’t want to hear again. Since doing that I’ve noticed the mix has gotten better.
Yeah, every time I make a new Pandora station, it starts out playing a mix of new stuff but soon sort of becomes a homogenous mix largely indiscernible from my other stations.
Not “liking” songs would help but I also sometimes actually go back and purchase stuff I liked (the system works!).
It’s still there, although it’s not as obvious as it used to be.
Interesting - I’ve found the opposite. If I dislike a bunch of songs, the station seems to have less variety, as if it gives up trying to figure out what I like and just plays the same few songs over and over. But this could be confirmation bias.
One thing I’ve noticed with Pandora is the longer I listen to a station, the cheezier it gets. It’s hard to explain, but after a couple of hours the Miles Davis station sounds like the house band from the Merv Griffith Show, if that makes sense.
I’ve noticed that Pandora has a lot of lower quality filler. Instead of the album version of a song, they’ll play the B-side, the demo tape, the live version, and the version the singer released when he made his solo album. So instead of discovering a new band that sounds kinda like the Grateful Dead, I’ll just hear their live in 1972 bootleg, the Jerry Garcia Band, and Rick Danko’s cover of “Ripple”.
It’s fine, but if I just wanted to listen to the Grateful Dead, I’d put on their albums, which have better versions of the songs I like. Part of the reason I started using Pandora was to hear new music based on my current musical interests. But instead I get a bunch of lower quality B-sides from bands I already know. It doesn’t help that the time period is included in their algorithm. Maybe I want to hear new bands who have been influenced by the Rolling Stones, and not just another classic rock station?
Pandora wont play only songs by a single artist. Its really annoying. If I want a band x station please only play songs by band x unless I tell u otherwise.
Right, that’s because “Tom Waits radio” plays music that shares the same features - genre, instruments, tonal quality, etc. of the various songs by that artist. Tom Waits isn’t loaded into the preferences that they use to select the songs - and he can’t be, according to Pandora. They say that their music licensing prevents them from playing individual songs or individual artists.
You get really interesting results from Pandora if you pick artists who change their musical styles significantly over their career.
I have one or two artists that I’ve made a station for and they do this all the time for that person. There’s no filter that Song = Song (Remix) = Song (Whatever) and maybe they don’t all need to be played in a 45min period.
Maybe iHeart Radio would be more to your liking? I’ve not used it but from the advertisements I hear, it sounds like customizeable radio stations and I’m guessing they do it better than Spotify.
When I manage my Pandora stations, I have to remember that the like and dislike buttons are not there just to define that particular song. Pandora uses the traits of the song to select or downplay other similar songs.
That means a song that fits your genre shouldn’t be disliked just because it was playing when you broke up with your girlfriend and it makes you sad. Disliking it tells Pandora that you don’t like that type of music.
Likewise, if there’s one single rap song you kinda like, don’t click the like button on it. Pandora will conclude that you like all rap.
I actually learned this lesson myself with my Power Metal station. It kept drifting into emo girl goth rock. I figured out that a few specific songs were the triggers for that and that I can’t “like” those songs on Pandora without killing the play list. I like the individual songs, yes, but I don’t like the genre they connect to. Pandora pays more attention to the connections than the specific songs.
I have better results seeding a station with groups or artists I like rather than songs. I think that makes it cast a wider net. Also you can try mixing genres up a bit. My favorite station I seeded with electronica/chill (Thievery Corporation et al) + modern pop music (The Shins, Phoenix etc.) and bossa nova/electro nova. Because there is some crossover in those genres, the station gradually shifts focus every 5 or 6 songs to bring a different kind of music, but one I still like, to the front. I’ve discovered a lot of new artists through Pandora. I pay for the service too – no ads and high quality sound. I listen to Pandora at some point almost every day.
Just to answer some points, I think I’ve already gamed Pandora about as good as I can get it. I’ve thumbs-downed all the junk they were trying to foist off on me that was probably cheap to license (I’m looking at you, every song before 1960), I’ve included every genre of music that I like, I’ve seeded it with about 40-50 artists at this point (not individual songs). The real and only problem is that they have a limited library of songs to choose from per artist. I like the Pixies but I’m getting really sick of hearing Where Is My Mind, which I’m convinced is the only song Pandora has the rights to.
I’m willing to pay more to get a better service, I think they’ve increased their price to $7/mo and I still think that’s a bargain for what I get, but I’d rather pay $20/mo if it got me a decent spectrum.
I’ll check out iHeart Radio, that’s one I’ve never messed with.
I’ve had a channel that I’ve stuck with for a few years on Pandora. I have liked and disliked very aggressively and worked out quite well. You can definitely tell when they get new rights, though, as they start sneaking(shoving) new bands in there.
Try out Songza too. The playlists are all curated, so it’s what people think go together, not what the machine algorithm decides. I usually listen based on genre, but the “concierge” where you choose a mood or theme is fun too: I’m currently listening to music for focusing (although fat lot of good it’s doing me).
I don’t know how long ago you tried Spotify, but I highly recommend trying it again. It has good functionality without you needing to put in much effort. There are strong similarities to Pandora where you can start up radio stations based on a playlist, genre, album, artist, or song, then tailor those with the like/dislike buttons. Songs you “like” will automatically be added to a playlist. So if you want to spend more time looking for specific artists or songs and making your own playlists you have the option to, but it’s not necessary at all.
I used to use Pandora but ended up frustrated with not being able to listen to specific songs unless they happened to show up by chance, and all of my stations ended up very similar. I like Spotify much much more because of the similar function but more specific options.