Anyone listen to Pandora Radio.

[amerikat]

I just became aware of it and like it a lot.

Type the name of an artist in and they play songs from that artist
and others that the find to be similar. They are very accurate from
what I heard. Liked all the songs and all the artists they played.

You can create multiple playlists for different types of music.

the theory and concept here----http://www.pandora.com/mgp.shtml

the site to start your playlists here----http://www.pandora.com/

almost no commercial to boot.

[Madrone]

1. slacker.com

better than pandora :)

[amerikat]

2. I'll check it out.

Thanks.

[Madrone]

10. no problem.

the only thing pandora has that slacker does not (unless things have changed since the last time I actually logged into my slacker account - and that's not impossible) is that with pandora you can create multiple stations and then put the stations on a kind of random rotation. it will then play one song from each station - we use that at work in order to better suit everyone's tastes.

[gmoney]

6. Slacker.com is temporarily unavailable.

Please stay tuned we will be back soon.
We apologize for any inconvenience.

[Madrone]

9. I just saw this and checked -

it's working now.

:)

[SeattleGirl]

3. I do. Love it.

[gmoney]

4. Pandora is pretty remarkable...

You can pay a really cheap annual fee ($36/yr) to get no commercials and some other benefits. I figure why not help 'em stay afloat.

If you have iTunes, the Genius mode is pretty good for building smart playlists based on your own music, too.

[mix]

5. no, i have been meaning to...thanks

:hi:

[amerikat]

14. glad I gave you a reminder.

:hi:

[TK421]

7. Love it....no complaints

easy to use...you get out of it only what you put into it, basically that's how it goes ( talking about your music selections, of course )

[Mojambo]

8. I prefer LastFM and Blip.FM n/t

[Amerigo Vespucci]

11. Yeah, but did you read the recent news? "Pandora Radio Survives, But Is No Longer Free"

Pandora Radio Survives, But Is No Longer Free

http://beatcrave.com/2009-07-08/pandora-radio-survives-but-is-no-longer-free/

Yesterday, Pandora founder Tim Westergren proclaimed on the Pandora Radio Blog that the service has stabilized its finances, and credited a recent agreement between artists, labels and webcasters to revise the US Copyright Royalty Board’s prices for online music streaming, ruled in 2007. On the downside, Pandora will no longer be free:

“The revised royalties are quite high – higher in fact than any other form of radio. As a consequence, we will have to make an adjustment that will affect about 10% of our users who are our heaviest listeners. Specifically, we are going to begin limiting listening to 40 hours per month on the free version of Pandora.”

What kind of adjustment? Westergren explains:

“In any given month, a listener who hits this limit can then opt for unlimited listening for the remainder of that month for just $0.99. In essence, we’re asking our heaviest users to put a dollar (well, almost a dollar) in the tip jar in any month in which they listen over 40 hours. We hope this is relatively painless and affordable–the same price as a single song download.”

It boils down to unlimited music for a dollar a month, and it only applies to those who listen for more than the stipulated forty hours. It seems like a fair price, and perhaps the most dedicated users won’t mind paying the equivalent of one iTunes song. The change in pricing also guarantees that the service will be able to continue to exist, and will certainly help the survival of all music streaming services.

ON EDIT: I did NOT post this to bitch about Pandora charging 99 cents. I posted it to bitch about the record labels seeking their pound of flesh, which is how this decision came about.

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. I like it for the music info, ease of use, variety.

When I remember to use it.
Haven't explored the other music sites much.

[amerikat]

16. Did it give you songs you liked?

I t did for me. I was surprised by the number of songs presented that I already knew
and songs that fit in by new artists that I didn't know. Turned me on to newer artists
in a genre that I understand.

[dixiegrrrrl]

18. Oh yes...the genre "meme" they use is quite accurate, it seems.

In some cases, that is,
In others, usually women singers, I am very particular, so often get voices I don't like.
But overall, lovely way to discover unknown music.
Just last night I found a killer 1950's piano player I had never heard of.
I also like the feature where you can click on a song
or artist
or album
and get history, details, similar artisits, songs, etc.
Until now, only allmusic.com had that one stop info.
Since Iuse swapcd.com, a lot of what I hear on Pandora I can find real cheap on the swap site.

[mix]

13. somafm

http://somafm.com/

[amerikat]

15. i'll check that out too.

thanks

[mix]

20. somafm is free

They have about 14 stations--from alt country to deep house. All very underground tunes...

Enjoy! And I'll check out Pandora...

:hi:

[mitchum]

17. It's fantastic, but for some artists Pandora plays rather fast-and-loose with the concept...

of "similar artists"

[travelingtypist]

19. I love Pandora.

I'm going to sign up for the $36/year. It's worth it.

My only complaint is I quit listening to commercial radio because they play the same songs to death. Sometimes one of my stations on Pandora will pop up three or four songs in a row that I've heard already and could stand not to hear again in X number of years. Kind of defeats the purpose. I want music I like that I've never heard before.

I'm going to check out some of the other services noted here.

Great thread.

Oh, and never listen to Pandora on the night before you are planning to visit your favorite independent music seller. It's a budget-killer. I walked out with six CDs instead of three.

[gmoney]

22. try the "don't play this track for a month" option

if hearing a song once a month is too frequent, give it the thumbs down, because you probably don't really like the song. I think their system takes the thumbs up and thumbs down ratings into account to refine the music selections in general, and possibly for you specifically.

sadly, there's only so much music out there that is like that of a particular song or artist, so I can't fault the system for not providing a constant stream of stuff I like and have never ever heard before.

I do find that in a certain "station" it will play a particular cut by an artist on a regular basis, rather than delving into the catalog of that artist for greater variety.

One cool thing I overlooked until recently is that it has access to classical and older music, too. The Louis Prima station plays a great variety of upbeat standards and swing and such, for instance.

[travelingtypist]

23. Yeah, I've clicked the "don't play" a few times.

I generally listen to the stations I created rather than the theirs. I created one related to Marillion, who gets almost no radio play except for Kayleigh, and they'll pop out Kansas, Journey, and Styx, which are similar, but very, very mainstream. I can't fault them on that. I'll end up switching to my Nightwish station if I want the really obscure stuff.

Maybe with the subscription fee, we'll be able to skip more than three songs an hour with the thumbs-down feature. If I skip more than the three, I have to switch to another station or mute a song I don't like.

[gmoney]

24. yes, I think subscribers get unlimited "skips"

be interesting if they could add a "popularity" preference on Pandora...

"I want music like this, but that nobody's ever heard of!"

[sinkingfeeling]

21. Sometimes. It gets a little far from the base type of music at times, but I liked not having to

recall names of artists or songs.

[Arugula Latte]

25. I do -- love it.

I posted a thread about Pandora awhile ago ... Let me look for it.

Okay ... found it:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=8388036

:hi:

edited to say I discovered that I love the band "Doves" through Pandora. Saw them in concert in May.

(My name was "Oregonian" before the name change.)

[ceile]

26. It's ok.

Plays The Smiths and The Cure more than I can stand though-and not even their good stuff...