I started using Pandora back in 2009 and found a bunch of great bands I had never heard of before.
I just recently started using it again after many months and find that it seems different.
It seems to be picking from a much smaller selection of artists now, as well as repeating songs far too frequently.
Thinking that maybe it was because my station became too narrowed, I decided to create a new one.
Same thing. Also, the music it suggests has me repeatedly thumbing down. (I’m on my third new station). I tried to stick it out with one of the new stations, only to again find the frequent repeats.
Has something changed with Pandora?
I think there might be something to that.
I know my stations tend to play the same songs each time I start them.
I usually only listen for about an hour or two and I know which songs I’ll hear in that time frame.
I’ve noticed that it seems to rapidly shift to genres to where I have a number of upvotes even when I start pretty far out. Part of that may be because I’m not upvoting enough new stuff so it decides “Oh, he must really want to hear this stuff he liked previously” but I also have better things to do in the car while driving than screw with closing the giant ads and trying to access the thumbs up/down buttons. The net result is that I really don’t wind up being introduced to much new stuff.
Those ads alone are about to put me off Pandora – can’t touch your phone without a giant ad popping up over the interface. And premium subscription doesn’t come with additional skips so I can’t internally justify the cost.