# Join us! Your musicial distinctiveness will be added to our own.\[Last.fm and Pandora\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 19, 2008, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/join-us-your-musicial-distinctiveness-will-be-added-to-our-own-last-fm-and-pandora/477842 "2008-12-19T01:49:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/join-us-your-musicial-distinctiveness-will-be-added-to-our-own-last-fm-and-pandora/477842/61 "2009-01-03T00:37:31Z")
> [@Vox\_Imperatoris](#): > > That is not correct, AFAIK. You must hit the “Don’t play for a month” button for it not to play it for a month. That may not be true anymore I suppose. When I first joined Pandora back in (2005? 2004? I don’t remember, it’s been a long time) they recommended skipping something three times as a way to get it to not play for a month, so I might be repeating old information that is not accurate anymore. Also, from the Pandora FAQ > [@faq](#): > > Q: How can I increase variety on the playlist for my station? > > First, we recommend that you add a lot of musical starting points (or ‘seeds’) to your stations. Your Pandora stations will sound even better, and will be much easier to personalize, if each station’s playlist is based on more than just a single artist name or song title. > > In order to increase variety of musical styles on a station, we suggest adding one or more artist names (‘artist seeds’) to your station’s definition. Since the Music Genome will use an artist name to choose music similar to selections from the artist’s entire repertoire, this produces the broadest possible playlist. Adding more artist names increases this effect. > > You can also add song titles (‘song seeds’) to a station you’d like to have a very broad playlist, but make sure to use at least twice as many artist seeds as song seeds. > Next, be selective when giving a “Thumbs Up” to songs. Some Pandora listeners swear by not giving “Thumbs Up” at all on stations for which they would like a very broad and diverse playlist, since inevitably “Thumbs Up” songs will play more often than others. On the other hand, a contrary strategy is to give dozens and dozens, if not hundreds, of songs the “Thumbs Up” on that station. This second strategy works best for very patient listeners, since although the end result will be an extremely personalized station, it takes a long time to create, and may still be somewhat less diverse than the “no Thumbs” types of stations. > Regardless of your strategy regarding “Thumbs Up,” be equally aware of your “Thumbs Down” voting patterns. Although you can still just give a “Thumbs Down” to any song that doesn’t belong on that station, regardless of how well you like it in general, when you’ve given a great many “Thumbs Down,” the playlist will be naturally diminished a bit and it’s probably time to add more station seeds, as above. > Finally, in order to avoid over-using “Thumbs Down,” consider using “Don’t play this song for a month” instead. This option is available from the triangular menu button between the “Thumbs,” directly below the album art. It’s the first option on that menu. > For more information about putting a song to sleep, please see: > [SiriusXM | Hear & Now](http://blog.pandora.com/faq/#17) So apperantly the trick is to either not thumbs up anything and only thumbs down stuff or, like me, get a long thumbs up list going. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/join-us-your-musicial-distinctiveness-will-be-added-to-our-own-last-fm-and-pandora/477842/62 "2009-01-03T00:45:45Z")
Apparently, my station can read my Dope posts, since there’s been more variety since I complained. I’ve got something odd in French playing now. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanTigerTamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@SuntanTigerTamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanTigerTamer)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/join-us-your-musicial-distinctiveness-will-be-added-to-our-own-last-fm-and-pandora/477842/63 "2009-01-03T01:08:05Z")
> **[fiftycalkiss’s Music Profile | Last.fm](https://www.last.fm/user/fiftycalkiss)** > > Listen to music from fiftycalkiss’s library (14,299 tracks played). Get your own music profile at Last.fm, the world’s largest social music platform. is me. I’m at work, so I can’t log on to Last FM, but will accept all friend requests from SDMB users when I get home. ---
**Author:** ![Vox\_Imperatoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Vox\_Imperatoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vox_Imperatoris)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/join-us-your-musicial-distinctiveness-will-be-added-to-our-own-last-fm-and-pandora/477842/64 "2009-01-03T01:13:45Z")
I’m curious, how often do you thumbs-up or thumbs-down songs? I almost never just leave a song at “neutral”; I either have to hit thumbs-up or thumbs-down right away, and my list of thumbs-downed songs is usually at least four times longer than the thumbs-uped ones. Valete, Vox Imperatoris ETA: So I’m definitely more of a “dozens and dozens of thumbs-ups” kind of guy. I do tend to have narrow musical interests, though. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/join-us-your-musicial-distinctiveness-will-be-added-to-our-own-last-fm-and-pandora/477842/65 "2009-01-03T01:17:02Z")
> [@Vox\_Imperatoris](#): > > I’m curious, how often do you thumbs-up or thumbs-down songs? Rarely. I’d guess that less than 5% of the songs get a thumb from me. ---
**Author:** ![Vox\_Imperatoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Vox\_Imperatoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vox_Imperatoris)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/join-us-your-musicial-distinctiveness-will-be-added-to-our-own-last-fm-and-pandora/477842/66 "2009-01-03T10:07:02Z")
Also, how often do you people run into the six song skip limit? I run up against it fairly often, mainly because it has a tendency to play a ton of songs I haven’t rated either way in a row, so I’ll have periods when I hardly ever skip a song interspersed with periods where I’m hitting thumbs-down again and again. Valete, Vox Imperatoris ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Ed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Just\_Ed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Ed)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/join-us-your-musicial-distinctiveness-will-be-added-to-our-own-last-fm-and-pandora/477842/67 "2009-01-03T11:07:12Z")
I’ve got three stations on Pandora:[ul][li][Power Pop](http://www.pandora.com/stations/d6ef07141b8ab19041675dbb2dae8892e7c5e7241f96d370)[_][Distaff Radio](http://www.pandora.com/stations/d78b2d98ab2520164fd627a77a876a33425ba2910f7abf8b)[_][Rock Radio](http://www.pandora.com/stations/979f204131f5da011095a514937e9c7eb605a4ab5f33e08b)[/ul]I’ve just recently realized over-using the thumbs-up option tends to result in a narrower and more repetitive playlist, so I’ve stopped using it quite so much.[/li] Generally, I’ve been impressed with the selection and variety it comes up with, especially when it plays songs from artists I don’t know or know only peripherally, but the song fits the tone of the station. Just last night I caught the tail end of a performance on one of the local PBS stations of a blues singer by the name of Renee Austin; I’d never heard of her before, but when I created a station using her as an artist seed, I got a whole bunch of interesting bluesy stuff in return. Renee got added to my artist seeds on Distaff Radio immediately. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/join-us-your-musicial-distinctiveness-will-be-added-to-our-own-last-fm-and-pandora/477842.md?page=3)