Pandora - for Music Lovers

Discussion in 'Music' started by Mal Campbell, Mar 31, 2015.

  1. Mal Campbell

    Mal Campbell Supreme Member
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    I may be slow coming to the table, but I just discovered Pandora. Actually, I found it a few years ago, but for some reason, didn't really use it and play with it much, than forgot about it. Anyway, at Christmas, I found that Roku has a Pandora channel and I looked for Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I let it play, and discovered to my delight that it played a bunch of other artists I'd never heard of that sounded similar to TSO. Wow!

    So I went to their website, and found out how amazing it is. You tell it an artist you like, and it creates a "station" with that artist and others who sound similar. You can then add other artists to the station. Now you have a channel that plays the music you like, and a bunch of new stuff you've never heard before.

    You can give songs a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, or you can skip a song you don't like. My understanding is, if you give it a thumbs-down or skip it, it won't play that song again.

    And best of all - it's FREE!! Yea - free new music. Anyone else use Pandora?
     
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  2. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Yeah, Pandora is great. The more you use it, as long as you interact with it by telling it what you like or don't like (thumbs up, thumbs down), the better it works for you. It also finds artists who are "like" the artists you have named, and does a pretty good job with that too.
     
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  3. Mal Campbell

    Mal Campbell Supreme Member
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    I love that it works with Roku, which is hooked up to our Denon surround-sound system (a purchase my husband made back in the good old days before the economy tanked). I turn the volume up so loud, I look like the old "Is it live or is it Memorex?" commercial. And then sing along at the top of my lungs. It's a good thing we don't have any neighbors nearby - they'd think I was nuts (well, actually I am, but I don't want the neighbors to know).

    memorex-comercial2.jpg
     
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  4. Pat Baker

    Pat Baker Supreme Member
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    I listen to Pandora on my cell phone. I like how I shuffle the music to keep it interesting, not just jazz all the time.
     
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  5. Mal Campbell

    Mal Campbell Supreme Member
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    How do you like the Pandora app? That's my next move, to see if I can get the app on an iPod touch. Supposedly, it runs on an iPod, but I'm not really sure. My husband has one, but I've never used it - and he's never downloaded apps to it before. He hadn't used it in so long, the battery was dead so he's now charging it.
     
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  6. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    I have the Pandora app on my iPad, and it works great, and is super easy to use. I imagine it would be the same on an iPod.
    I also really like Spotify. It is similar to Pandora, except with Spotify, you can also make playlists of songs that you like and it plays just those songs, similar to iTunes. You can have as many playlists as you like, and they have ane awesome selection of songs on spotify. You are not actually buying the song, and so it is totally free, unless you get the premium version (just like Pandora).
     
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  7. Mal Campbell

    Mal Campbell Supreme Member
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    Thanks for the recommendation. I've heard of Spotify before, but didn't really know what it was. I'll have to check it out. I love music, but since money's gotten tight the past year or so, I haven't been able to buy anything new. I keep putting CDs on my Wish List on amazon, hoping that one day I'll have a little more disposable income. Maybe Spotify would actually do the trick. Can you play your Spotify playlists on an iPhone or iPod?
     
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  8. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    I have both Spotify and Pandora on the iPad and the iPhone, and it works on both of them just fine. I have bluetooth headphones so I can listen to music when I am busy on the computer and not disturb anyone (unless I decide to happily sing along with the music).
    They are both great programs as far as I am concerned, and both of them have a free version as well as a premium version with no advertisements.
     
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  9. Jenn Windey

    Jenn Windey Supreme Member
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    I have Pandora through Roku as well, I like to listen to music when I am getting ready for work or cleaning up and stuff like that. I think the thing I like about Pandora is that you can set a channel and get exposure to bands that you may not listen to otherwise. I have found some new music I really like that way. Another thing I do to find new music is this, sometimes I hear a song i like on the car radio or something, so when I come home what i do is search for it on youtube. Then down the side I will choose the next song with the highest views. I can click around like this for hours, sometimes I find good things I like. Today was one of those days. I found a few new songs to add to my MP3 player for the car.
     
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  10. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Amazon has come out with a new music service, called Prime Music. It is similar to Pandora in that you do not get to make a playlist, you just choose a singer you like (from their list), or a type of music, and then they play smilar songs, just as Pandora does.
    The nice thing about Amazon Music is that if you have Amazon Prime, then there are absolutely NO commercials ! With Spotify or Pandora, you have to pay annually or monthly to have the deluxe service and be commercial-free; but not with the Prime Music.
    I have been checking it out, and while it does not currently have as many songs as Pandora or Spotify, it works well, you can like/dislike a song so it will gradually customize itself to your tastes, and I am sure that they will be adding more songs and singers as they get it going.
    It also has an app for the ipad, and I am sure one for Kindle as well.
     
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  11. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    New from Pandora is the Thumbprint radio. I just started mine tonight and I already LOVE it ! !
    Here is how it works.
    If you already use Pandora, you know that when you like a song, you can click the "thumbs up" icon and then it plays that song more, and if you click the "thumbs down" icon, then it goes off of the playlist.
    This has now been modified to what is called Thumbprint Radio. It plays ALL of the songs that you have rated as "thumbs up" since you have had Pandora.
    Listening to your Thumbprint Radio is like taking a musical journey through all of your favorite songs.

    To add it to your Pandora , just read this interesting article that explains it, and click the link that takes you to the website to add it on. (You DO need to already have Pandora installed before you are able to add this feature, of course).

    http://blog.pandora.com/2015/12/14/...al-station-inspired-by-all-of-your-thumbs-up/
     
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  12. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    This is an old thread, but I happened upon it, and just wanted to revive it because there are more people here than when it originally started. Almost four years later, and I still LOVE Thumbprint Radio from Pandora.
    When I am streaming music, I usually listen to either Pandora or Spotify, and I like them equally, but for different reasons.
    With Spotify, you can make actual playlists, and then those are the songs that you listen to, whereas with Pandora, you select a favorite singer, or type of music, and then Pandora selects the songs. You never know what the next song is going to be, just that it is supposed to be something similar to the type of song or singer that you chose.
    Thumbprint Radio kicks that up a notch , because even though Pandora still selects the songs, it is going to be something from one of your chosen stations that you have a some time in the past, given it a thumbs up for liking that song.
    So, even though it is a mix from a variety of music, it is always going to be a song that you enjoy.
     
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  13. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I had forgotten about Pandora. I used to listen to Pandora a lot. Lately, I've just been using iTunes. Between my wife and I, we had hundreds of CDs from back when they still had such a thing as music, so I spent a day uploading them all to one of my cloud accounts, plus I bought a few through iTunes, so that's what I've been listening to mostly.
     
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  14. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I have been using Pandora some lately since I'm working on stuff that makes it hard for me to follow movies at the same time. If you use Pandora, or something similar, which channels do you subscribe to? I don't remember adding a couple of them, but this is what I have. Of course, Pandora selects songs that are similar to whichever one you are listening to, or you can have it alternate between them, which is what I usually do. If you use the thumbs down and thumbs up regularly, it eventually gets pretty good at finding stuff that you like.
    • 60s Folk Radio
    • Alan Jackson Radio
    • Americana Radio
    • Angel Voices Radio
    • Arlo Guthrie Radio
    • Beatles Radio
    • Beach Boys Radio
    • Bluegrass Radio
    • Buddy Holly Radio
    • Cat Stevens Radio
    • Celtic Radio
    • Christian Classics Radio
    • Classic Progressive Rock Radio
    • Country Joe & the Fish Radio
    • Country Joe McDonald Radio
    • Cowsills Radio
    • Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Radio
    • Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show Radio
    • Dr. John Radio
    • Emerson, Lake & Palmer Radio
    • Folk Rock Radio
    • Ghost Stories Radio
    • Grace Slick Radio
    • Grateful Dead Radio
    • Hanson Radio
    • Harpers Bizarre Radio
    • Harry Nilsson Radio
    • Herman’s Hermits Radio
    • Janis Joplin Radio
    • Jim Croce Radio
    • Joan Jett Radio
    • Kari Jobe Radio
    • Keith Green Radio
    • Mennonite Radio
    • Monkees Radio
    • Moody Blues Radio
    • Peter, Paul & Mary Radio
    • Pink Floyd Radio
    • Rich Mullins Radio
    • Rich Mullins and a Ragamuffin Band Radio
    • St. Philip’s Boy Choir Radio
    • Simon & Garfunkel Radio
    • Southern Rock Radio
    • Stephen Stills Radio
    • Strawberry Alarm Clock Radio
    • Turtles Radio
    • West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band Radio
     
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  15. Bess Barber

    Bess Barber Veteran Member
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    I'm so lame, I just listen to someone else's playlist on YouTube because I'm too lazy to put together my own.
     
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