Internet Radio – Self Styled….(part 1) Pandora
I sit at my computer all day working from home so I need music on……wanted to talk about Online radio…where you can build your own ’station’. I’ve used Pandora.com on and off for years now and it’s alright but usually ends up with about 25-35% that I can do without. So….a formal study!
If like me you enjoy music while you work, or read online this might be of some use to you. Sometimes setting all my 300 disc carousel players on random is too much work plus the rest of the house never seem thrilled with me. So I can just listen in my office. So tuck in – check out Pandora and (ideally) here some new stuff you might like and some old stuff that you may have missed.
OK… Pandora.com is supposed to build a playlist based on my ‘likes’
I typed in 15 bands I like…and they then generated for my listening pleasure….
Lloyd Cole – Forest Fire (Bliss….. 9.1 out of 10)
James – Sometimes (Perfection… 9.5 of 10)
Milltown Brothers – Which Way (I forgot them…on purpose 3.2 of 10)
Band of Horses – Ode to LRC (not one of their best…..4.1 of 10)
Pete Yorn – Turn of the Century (Pete Yawn more like….1.5 of 10)
Tokyo Police Club – Your English (I love them!!……..8.7 of 10)
Ned’s Atomic Dustbin – Dust (I saw them in ‘93…..5.5 of 10)
The Cure – A Letter to Elise (not their best but still…….6.0 of 10)
Radiohead – The Trickster (a decent B side………6.5 of 10)
New Order – Blue Monday (biggest 12″ in UK history….8.5 of 10)
The House of Love – Crush Me (so nice to hear them again…..8.8 of 10)
So..in summary
11 tracks…
5 I like a lot
3 I’m fine with
3 I didn’t need to hear
I was aware of all 11 tracks, and owned 9 of them
Considering the bands I put in….not enough new stuff and fairly mainstream. Do check Tokyo Police Club…I always listen to that disc.
Verdict – Not a bad tool….I’ll keep experimenting with it. Let me know how it works for you, I also plan to look at / review the others.
Tim
HI TIM Sadly we can’t get Pandora in the UK think it’s because”THEY AIN’T GOT A GOVERNMENT LICENCE” some things never change.
David,
Sorry to hear that….I’ll dig though for some more. You do have spotify though right?
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I’ve always been disappointed with Pandora as it seems to focus in on specific parts of the artist that I don’t like as much, or just give me mediocre artists that just seem to be imitating whoever I typed in.
Thanks Jesse….yeah I always drift away within the hour as I don’t hear the variation I’m seeking. Do you have a favourite site of this type?
Tim,Yeah we have spotify but to get it free is invite only,and if your name ain’t on the list and all that.You can pay £9.99 a month,which is o.k if you use it everyday but if not it’s another tenner wasted.I do love the UK but can’t help feeling frustrated at how far behind we are with stuff like this.I mean everybody has SKY now yet we still have to fork out £140 to keep the fatcats at the BBC going,sorry mean a TV licence.As a football fan Tim I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s a disgrace that our national tv station shows none or very little live sport and seems to produce no new programmes.I’ll shut up I’m beginning to sound like my father moan bloody moan.
I understand…that said….I miss the BBC and liked the lack of adverts (a lot!) Satellite here with far too many channels but plenty of sport/news (and adverts) runs me $75 per month – about 45 quid a month – x 12 is what 540 pounds/year. Considering how I can see (most) of what I want to see online and prefer music anyway…it seems a waste. Incidentally can you access lala.com ??
Checked out lala.com you get a message saying will be available to international listeners soon.Re;BBC you wouldn’t be very impressed with it now mate,know what you mean in the 70’s,80’s the Beeb was untouchable but now it just can’t compete.There is the odd good classic like Question Time but on the whole it needs a total re-vamp,shame but I guess thats progress for you.
Pandora is a strange thing. Not a bad idea on paper but not great in execution. It trys to base what songs it dishes you on what you say you like. Problem with that, is it trys too hard. For example, take The Meters. They started out with this funky, organ centered sound (kinda like Booker T. & the MG’s) and eventually became a funk band. If Pandora plays an early Meters song, and you say you like it, it continues to feed you songs like that, instead of expanding through their catalog. And I entered the Rolling Stones and it gave me a steady diet of classic rock crap I can hear on the damn radio (how dare they play me Bon Jovi!), instead of simply giving me more Stones. It did turn me on to some cool stuff (eventually) but I end up skipping over a lotta stuff. For work day listening, I have my own station I put together on Live365, NOTIMEWARP RADIO. That’s another story… Pandora… it’s alright but they could do better.
In less than 2 minutes, you can have PC Pandora up and running on your PC. Musical Instruments
Lala.com is one of my favorites. I don’t know if it has a radio function but I love the fact that I can preview any album on it.
Agreed on the TV point too…it it wasn’t for live sports I would ditch my cable package altogether.