Pandora's been changing her tune

reydelaplaya

reydelaplaya

Super Member
I stayed in last night after getting back from work a bit later than usual and just wanted to unwind with a couple cold ones and some nice music. I cued-up my Ella, Nat, and Louis station on Pandora*, and after the initial advertisement upon opening, it played for almost two whole hours without any interruption. Furthermore, it didn't stray from my seeds like it usually does. For the non-paid membership, it was really nice, just like it was when I first opened my account 8 or 9 years ago.

A different channel this morning, and still virtually ad free and on topic, seedwise.

I'm guessing that she's starting to feel the heat from competition and stepping up her game a bit.

Has anyone else noticed that Pandora's been behaving nicely lately?

For the younger generation:

*Pandora: Pronounciation: /panˈdôrə/ (N); A well-designed, vintage streaming music site which gained immense popularity during the MySpace** Era only to lose her throne in more recent years due to superior competition, her overwhelming desire to lump Little Richard and Chuck Berry in with Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald, and her inability to play more than two songs between irrelevant advertisements.

**MySpace: Pronunciation: /mʌɪ speɪs/ (N); pre Facebook, post CompuServe, social networking.
 
I had a paid subscription for a year, but gave it up, mostly because I'm primarily an album listener. They would also mix in a lot of the "Verve Remixed" tracks into classic vocal jazz stations, which I find utterly offensive; who the heck is in charge of Verve these days? Shameful stuff.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verve_Remixed
 
I'm a paid subscriber and mine barely plays two hours without stopping and asking if I'm still listening.

Cool jazz is my favorite but I'm hearing much of the same stuff over and over. They even have the audacity to cue up stuff like Percy Faith and big band tunes from the 40's which is a stretch for cool jazz.
 
Love me my Pandora. Paid subscriber here too. I've found sooooo many artists that have become my most favorite since listening to Pandora. The amount of music and artists is staggering. Most definetly worth the asking price. Sound quality is also very nice when paid. I get no commercials...just music.

Jimmy
 
I listened to Pandora around 2001 or 2002 when it first came out after reading about the Music Genome Project. Since then I've dabbled off and on, but I have migrated to other streaming sources. Recently Tidal has my interest. I like choosing my music specifically at times and listening to the entire album, PLUS having the option to have the source choose the music for me when I choose the Genre.

This is probably why I have about five or six sources that I use for streaming. I like to mix it up.
 
I loved MOG, but was disappointed when they sold out. I jumped ship when the deal was announced, wishing everyone would join me, 'cause what would they be selling then? The only music streaming I do now is with either Pandora or Amazon Prime freebies. Mostly I listen to music I've purchased on CD, and ripped. Not sure I want to subscribe to another service; prices seem to keep rising.
 
I'm a Slacker fan myself, for $9.99 you can do almost anything. I have 2000+ favorites, 5 custom playlists for driving, party, stoner, relax..even sexytime lol. I also have about 125 full albums downloaded on my Note 3.
It isn't perfect but works great and I've had it so long its just natural to me. I tried Pandora but it wasn't as good with pre programmed genre stations, I did Spotify and liked its mixing adjustments and license selection but Slacker again just felt right.
 
I've also ripped every single CD I own to the cloud. Big PITA but it's worth it. Took weeks of dedicated ripping. I ripped to two separate services. The free Google Play service, and the Amazon Music Service. Google allows 50k songs for free. Amazon charges $25 a year for 250k songs, so that's basically unlimited. If you truly have more than 25,000 CD's that you need ripped, then bless your heart. I also ripped to a NAS that I bought from Amazon. Has room for about 20,000 songs. Plenty for me.

I happen to like the Amazon Prime Music Service. Much of what I listen to in Jazz is available included with Prime Music. What's not I have ripped to Amazon anyway. Being able to call up your entire CD collection via a keystroke is sure convenient.

BTW, I ripped my CD's to iTunes at 256 AAC and then ran Google's Play Music Browser in the background which automatically browses your hard drive and sends tunes to Google Play for you. I then ran the Amazon Prime Music Import App to cut them to Amazon Prime. 256 AAC is plenty for me. Besides, most cloud servers are going to limit you to 256 AAC streaming. If not, your storage allocation is going to be huge and you'll have to pay a premium for that luxury.

I'm with you, musichal. When my Tidal Script runs out, I may end music subscription, save Amazon Prime.
 
So can you download cloud content to your phones cache or do you have to stream it at all times?

BillyBatts said:
I've also ripped every single CD I own to the cloud. Big PITA but it's worth it. Took weeks of dedicated ripping. I ripped to two separate services. The free Google Play service, and the Amazon Music Service. Google allows 50k songs for free. Amazon charges $25 a year for 250k songs, so that's basically unlimited. If you truly have more than 25,000 CD's that you need ripped, then bless your heart. I also ripped to a NAS that I bought from Amazon. Has room for about 20,000 songs. Plenty for me.

I happen to like the Amazon Prime Music Service. Much of what I listen to in Jazz is available included with Prime Music. What's not I have ripped to Amazon anyway. Being able to call up your entire CD collection via a keystroke is sure convenient.

BTW, I ripped my CD's to iTunes at 256 AAC and then ran Google's Play Music Browser in the background which automatically browses your hard drive and sends tunes to Google Play for you. I then ran the Amazon Prime Music Import App to cut them to Amazon Prime. 256 AAC is plenty for me. Besides, most cloud servers are going to limit you to 256 AAC streaming. If not, your storage allocation is going to be huge and you'll have to pay a premium for that luxury.

I'm with you, musichal. When my Tidal Script runs out, I may end music subscription, save Amazon Prime.
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Pan-dora..

*Pandora: Pronounciation: /panˈdôrə/ (N); A well-designed, vintage streaming music site which gained immense popularity during the MySpace** Era only to lose her throne in more recent years due to superior competition, her overwhelming desire to lump Little Richard and Chuck Berry in with Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald, and her inability to play more than two songs between irrelevant advertisements.

Thanks for the correct pronounce..!

Well I find Pandora most complimentary.... given its an APP for my Droid.

Yes, believe it or not, I own/use a Droid... :D
 
13x24mancave said:
So can you download cloud content to your phones cache or do you have to stream it at all times?
Click to expand...

You own the music, so you can download it any time you want to. It's yours to do with as you wish. The only time I download much is when I'm going to fly trans continental or to and from Hawaii. 4 or 8 hour flights would be intolerable for me without music. I've got 10 gig of 4g so streaming is not a big deal when I'm traveling (off planes), not to mention the abundant WiFi that exists these days. Unfortunately WiFi on Planes (SkyFi) does not allow streaming.

FYI:

Googles FREE service indeed allows 50 thousand songs to be uploaded to the cloud. But the free service stream is only 64k (I believe) and not so great on playback. Amazon (for 25 bucks a year) allows 250k songs and streams at 256 AAC. Very acceptable. I think you can upgrade google easily enough, but it's a monthly fee and that drives me nuts.
 
Well shit I have 1 more.
His does cached content sound and does the albums art copy to the cloud or is it need imported? Thanks again
 
I've paid accounts with both Pandora & Spotify... spending time with each to see/hear what works best for me.

Pandora does a better job of selecting cuts to play on any particular radio channel. I think their Music Genome Project is good. Sure... there are times when Pandora "goes fishing," as I call it. They will throw something in that seems well out of the mix they've been playing. After all, Pandora self-describes as a "music discovery service." And for $5 a month, it's worth every penny.

Spotify streams at a 320kbps clip (if the artists provide that higher-res mp3) and may sound a bit better than Pandora One which streams at 192kbps. But I've created identical channels on Spotify that I have on Pandora and Spotify's radio service is not a good as Pandora... of course that's my humble opinion.
 
JimmyNeutron said:
Love me my Pandora. Paid subscriber here too. I've found sooooo many artists that have become my most favorite since listening to Pandora. The amount of music and artists is staggering. Most definetly worth the asking price. Sound quality is also very nice when paid. I get no commercials...just music.

Jimmy
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I'll second that!

I don't have any problem with "Are you still listening?" timeouts. On the rare occasion that I do get them, it is not a problem to answer the question and resume listening. I don't mind answering if it helps to keep the price as low as it is. There are those time when I have answered no as well. Just doing my part to conserve all those bits and bytes.
 
Wow, you guys have now got me considering upgrading to a paid subscription. I generally have always liked Pandora for its vast library of music, and only just realized how much nicer it is without advertisements. Hmmm.:scratch2: I think I just might go ahead and do it. Thanks!
 
reydelaplaya said:
Wow, you guys have now got me considering upgrading to a paid subscription. I generally have always liked Pandora for its vast library of music, and only just realized how much nicer it is without advertisements. Hmmm.:scratch2: I think I just might go ahead and do it. Thanks!
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Try Slacker, I really think its better as you can do everything Pandora does but its preprogrammed material is better for new discovery.
 
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