Opening Pandora's box

You are a little behind the curve, but it is a great site. I use it at work fairly frequently. I have a "Frank Sinatra" playlist, which is really good.

It's fairly rocking but they cut off international traffic about a year ago so no more pandora for me.

I've found that Pandora sometimes gives me too little of what I want and then sometimes gets stuck in something I don't want. I started out listening to an alternative rock song, and somehow from my ratings it determined that I would like ragtime piano tunes. It played one after another in a row, and I kept skipping them until I would not let me skip any more.

I have found that yahoo's launchcast is much more customizable. It's the same kind of thing, but you can actually list multiple bands you enjoy, rather than just one and build a station around them. I haven't used it in a while though, it might've changed.

Cool! I typed in "Runrig" (Scottish folk rock) and was really impressed.

I was listening to Pandora as I read your post! My Townes Van Zandt + Bob Dylan station has provided me many hrs of happy listening.

Pandora is great, but you gotta give it feedback. Skipping tracks doesn't work. If you hit a song you don't like, then let it know you don't like it. It even gives you options, like.. "Sure, I like the song, but don't play it as much" or "Don't play this one again" or 'Don't play stuff LIKE this again" *laugh*

Yeah, sometimes it guesses the wrong quality about the song that you like, but the idea is also that sometimes you don't realize why you like that style of music, and you can find out you like something you've never ever listened to in the process.

But.. for it to really learn your likes, feedback is the key.

Pandora is an amazing service. Give it a few hints, and it will dig out really interesting music you might well like but have never heard of.

Still, I prefer listening to someone who knows music and maybe doesn't always share my tastes -- I might learn something truly new. Most of the new music I buy these days comes from those sort of stations, such as "Cafe LA" with the great Tom Schnabel (who helped bring us the Buena Vista Social Club and Djivan Gasparyan, among others) and Radio Paradise, which opened my ears to all sorts of delightful but little-known talents, including Augie March, Kathleen Edwards, and Andrew Bird.

Been using it for years; love it!

Rod,

Lost Highway Records used to have a Juke Box (it opened in a flash screen made to look like an old-time Juke Box) and played all the artists records on their label (Willy Nelson, Ryan Adams, Cash, Lyle Lovett, Old 97's and all other kinds of great artists.

They got rid of it last time I was there, though they continually play there artists and you can scroll through until you find something you like.

Thanks for sharing Pandora.

I love it, have used it for over a year now.

actually, I have a Arvo Part station on pandora. You have to do a search with the word "Part" and not the whole name "Arvo part".

It worked; I found Tavener, too, by leaving off his first name. Go figure. Thanks for the tip.