Pandora is laying off 7% of its US workforce(techcrunch.com)
techcrunch.com
Pandora is laying off 7% of its US workforce
https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/12/pandora-is-laying-off-7-of-its-workforce/
181 comments
Most of the time I don't want to pick a song. I want to listen to a certain genre and just have music play. Pandora was perfect for me. I paid for Pandora ONE for 5 years.
This year I cancelled and moved to Spotify.
For $2/month it was a great product and a great deal. But the product didn't change over a 5 year period. I found stations got stuck into the same set of songs and would stop adding new ones. I wonder win the last time the Music Genome Project was updated? More infuriating, their buggy Adobe Air desktop app was never fixed or updated.
Three years ago the price moved to $3/mo. Two years ago it moved to $4/mo. This past year they got rid of any grandfathered discounts and charged $5/mo. I was sick of paying more for the same product and jumped ship. I do miss my radio stations, but Spotify's prebuilt playlists are pretty good replacement.
This year I cancelled and moved to Spotify.
For $2/month it was a great product and a great deal. But the product didn't change over a 5 year period. I found stations got stuck into the same set of songs and would stop adding new ones. I wonder win the last time the Music Genome Project was updated? More infuriating, their buggy Adobe Air desktop app was never fixed or updated.
Three years ago the price moved to $3/mo. Two years ago it moved to $4/mo. This past year they got rid of any grandfathered discounts and charged $5/mo. I was sick of paying more for the same product and jumped ship. I do miss my radio stations, but Spotify's prebuilt playlists are pretty good replacement.
> I found stations got stuck into the same set of songs and would stop adding new ones.
There was this odd bug on some stations that caused unrelated tracks, at least from a human standpoint, to play. Most notorious were some classic rock stations. After a couple hours of play, they'd start playing comedy. I could understand if there were some parody bands or musicians like Spinal Tap or Tenacious D seeding the stations, but these stations had none of the sort.
There was this odd bug on some stations that caused unrelated tracks, at least from a human standpoint, to play. Most notorious were some classic rock stations. After a couple hours of play, they'd start playing comedy. I could understand if there were some parody bands or musicians like Spinal Tap or Tenacious D seeding the stations, but these stations had none of the sort.
Stuck on the same set of songs is really the Killer
I liked spotify but requiring a fb account to listen is pretty lame. Don't know if they've modified that requirement.
I have had Spotify for about a year and have never had to connect Facebook.
They must have, i'm a Spotify sub and i've never used FB with Spotify. At least, that i remember. I rarely (read: maybe once a year) login to FB so i despise any FB-only login services.
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How opposed would you be to creating a shell fb account with zero personal info and a fake name, in order to log in to products? I realize you shouldn't have to take this extra step, but so many wonderful products DO require an fb login...
I'll pass/do without. Products should not force users to take any action they are opposed to.
To get a station unstuck, like or dislike a couple songs.
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It's sad how much room there is to disrupt music with what i consider basic features in data storage.
Eg, why are we still using playlists? I want to be able to sort/listen to my music by tags, ranging from "cool" to "energetic" to "happy". Ie, a string tag, a tempo tag, and an emotion tag. I want to be able to filter queries to an arbitrary number of tags and genres. I want to be able to filter by who it was produced by, who played in it, per album or per song.
Most of the features i want don't require any complex content recognition algorithm. And yet, like it's 1990, most of the music apps i use (spotify, google music) lack what i consider to be basic features.
Why did Gmail "pave the way" with tagging instead of folders, and yet i'm still stuck using Playlists in Google Music? Why does Spotify support a nice rich community for playlists, but seemingly won't let the community add meaningful data to songs, albums, etc and then let me query my song collection from that?
I know, i'm sure there are plenty of mp3 players and etc that do this just fine - but i use Spotify, and i want the features in there. I want a streaming collection of on demand music. I like the variety. I'd kill for my above features with a Spotify-like package.
Eg, why are we still using playlists? I want to be able to sort/listen to my music by tags, ranging from "cool" to "energetic" to "happy". Ie, a string tag, a tempo tag, and an emotion tag. I want to be able to filter queries to an arbitrary number of tags and genres. I want to be able to filter by who it was produced by, who played in it, per album or per song.
Most of the features i want don't require any complex content recognition algorithm. And yet, like it's 1990, most of the music apps i use (spotify, google music) lack what i consider to be basic features.
Why did Gmail "pave the way" with tagging instead of folders, and yet i'm still stuck using Playlists in Google Music? Why does Spotify support a nice rich community for playlists, but seemingly won't let the community add meaningful data to songs, albums, etc and then let me query my song collection from that?
I know, i'm sure there are plenty of mp3 players and etc that do this just fine - but i use Spotify, and i want the features in there. I want a streaming collection of on demand music. I like the variety. I'd kill for my above features with a Spotify-like package.
The answer is that "cool" and "happy" tags won't find the music you want. Vivaldi's "Spring" and Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry Be Happy" and "C'Mon Get Happy" by the Partridge Family are all "happy." As is "Sailing" by Christopher Cross and Charlie Pride's "Kiss an Angel Good Morning."
Turns out that what most people really want when they say "I want to be able to sort/listen to my music by tags" is something that feels like a curated playlist, where the songs naturally work together one-after-another without being jarring, usually within some music category if not within a narrow genre.
Turns out that what most people really want when they say "I want to be able to sort/listen to my music by tags" is something that feels like a curated playlist, where the songs naturally work together one-after-another without being jarring, usually within some music category if not within a narrow genre.
> The answer is that "cool" and "happy" tags won't find the music you want. Vivaldi's "Spring" and Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry Be Happy" and "C'Mon Get Happy" by the Partridge Family are all "happy." As is "Sailing" by Christopher Cross and Charlie Pride's "Kiss an Angel Good Morning."
Are those all the same artist? The same album? The same genre?
My point in the above questions is that of course a single field won't perfectly fit to all songs in existence, but "fit" is subjective. If i want "up tempo" music, and i don't request anything else, then give me all up tempo music. Rage rock, rap, symphony, all of it. I can refine the filter if i want.
This allows me to query "play me all up tempo music from Dave Matthews Band". "Play me all happy music from Dave Matthews Band's album Live at the Rocks", and etc.
> Turns out that what most people really want when they say "I want to be able to sort/listen to my music by tags" is something that feels like a curated playlist, where the songs naturally work together one-after-another without being jarring, usually within some music category if not within a narrow genre.
Clearly that's not what i want, as i am extremely dissatisfied with Playlists.
Expecting all music to somehow be grouped into non-flexible folders (which is all playlists are) seems silly to me. Do you think i shouldn't be able to Search Google/Internet for custom terms?
Why can i not search music for custom tags, but i can search for genres? Having tags doesn't mean Playlists can't exist, but it can allow me to refine my UX to exactly what i want. I'm sick of curated Playlists, and i'm tired of trying to remember all song names in existence to build my own. I want better data to build collections of songs.
Are those all the same artist? The same album? The same genre?
My point in the above questions is that of course a single field won't perfectly fit to all songs in existence, but "fit" is subjective. If i want "up tempo" music, and i don't request anything else, then give me all up tempo music. Rage rock, rap, symphony, all of it. I can refine the filter if i want.
This allows me to query "play me all up tempo music from Dave Matthews Band". "Play me all happy music from Dave Matthews Band's album Live at the Rocks", and etc.
> Turns out that what most people really want when they say "I want to be able to sort/listen to my music by tags" is something that feels like a curated playlist, where the songs naturally work together one-after-another without being jarring, usually within some music category if not within a narrow genre.
Clearly that's not what i want, as i am extremely dissatisfied with Playlists.
Expecting all music to somehow be grouped into non-flexible folders (which is all playlists are) seems silly to me. Do you think i shouldn't be able to Search Google/Internet for custom terms?
Why can i not search music for custom tags, but i can search for genres? Having tags doesn't mean Playlists can't exist, but it can allow me to refine my UX to exactly what i want. I'm sick of curated Playlists, and i'm tired of trying to remember all song names in existence to build my own. I want better data to build collections of songs.
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I don't disagree with you that a well-tagged music repository would be useful - indeed this is the goal of the music genome project - but am trying to point out that the typical requirement for "tagging" music is well beyond almost any individual user. Songs need to be tagged by genre, subgenre, style, mood, tempo, instrumentation, vocalist style, intensity, scale, key, and many more categories in order to adequately be able to mine the database and return results that the typical user would find useful. Then the user would have to be sophisticated enough to form queries that would return useful results. Maybe "uptempo" would be a meaningful result for you but a cross-section of all uptempo music would return unacceptable results for pretty much everyone else.
Who wants to follow Van Halen's "You Really Got Me" with the Endaro Mahaanubhaavulu? Answer: nobody. So you need to define genre. OK, you select "Rock". Now "You Really Got Me" is followed by "Non E Per Sempre." Oops. Still the wrong genre - and also the wrong language.
So you specify "English" words and try to tighten the genre. Now this is harder: is Van Halen "hard rock" or "metal" or "glam rock" (answer: could be any of the above). Pick the wrong one, and you'll accidentally expunge "You Really Got Me" from your listening experience, or include a bunch of Poison and Tesla songs, and you really hate those bands because you think their lyrics are dumb.
Uh-oh. Now you need a way to categorize the thoughtfulness of the lyrics.
The fact is that the requirement that most listeners have is something much more intelligent than a database search. If you've attempted to use the music genome project to find music, you'll know what a difficult process it can be. The music it returns is extremely hit-or-miss - and it is exquisitely tagged. By the way, I do think that the music genome project will solve your particular requirement "show uptempo music from Dave Matthews Band."
I'm not saying it's not possible. I'm saying it requires next-gen AI to (A) adequately categorize music on all needed dimensions and (B) assist the user in forming meaningful queries.
I'm also saying that the experience of radio broadcasting over the last 50 years is that listeners almost always want something that feels extremely familiar and highly curated....
Who wants to follow Van Halen's "You Really Got Me" with the Endaro Mahaanubhaavulu? Answer: nobody. So you need to define genre. OK, you select "Rock". Now "You Really Got Me" is followed by "Non E Per Sempre." Oops. Still the wrong genre - and also the wrong language.
So you specify "English" words and try to tighten the genre. Now this is harder: is Van Halen "hard rock" or "metal" or "glam rock" (answer: could be any of the above). Pick the wrong one, and you'll accidentally expunge "You Really Got Me" from your listening experience, or include a bunch of Poison and Tesla songs, and you really hate those bands because you think their lyrics are dumb.
Uh-oh. Now you need a way to categorize the thoughtfulness of the lyrics.
The fact is that the requirement that most listeners have is something much more intelligent than a database search. If you've attempted to use the music genome project to find music, you'll know what a difficult process it can be. The music it returns is extremely hit-or-miss - and it is exquisitely tagged. By the way, I do think that the music genome project will solve your particular requirement "show uptempo music from Dave Matthews Band."
I'm not saying it's not possible. I'm saying it requires next-gen AI to (A) adequately categorize music on all needed dimensions and (B) assist the user in forming meaningful queries.
I'm also saying that the experience of radio broadcasting over the last 50 years is that listeners almost always want something that feels extremely familiar and highly curated....
> Who wants to follow Van Halen's "You Really Got Me" with the Endaro Mahaanubhaavulu? Answer: nobody. So you need to define genre. OK, you select "Rock". Now "You Really Got Me" is followed by "Non E Per Sempre." Oops. Still the wrong genre - and also the wrong language.
Of course, that's why you combine filters. You keep speaking of single queries.
I'm not saying it will be perfect. I'm saying right now we have nearly no useful ability to discover music. I'm extremely dissatisfied with music discovery, and i have no control in most applications.
> I'm also saying that the experience of radio broadcasting over the last 50 years is that listeners almost always want something that feels extremely familiar and highly curated....
Which sucks, because it's clear most popular products (Spotify/etc) agree with you - and i detest it. I have been given zero, completely zero meaningful features to interact with. At best i have magic in the backend to "hopefully maybe implement what i might want". There is no interaction to allow me to try and shape this with any meaningful feedback over what each interaction does.
What does this Heart do? Is it permanent or is it just temporary? How do i build a dynamic playlist off of a mood? How do i remove certain artists/genres/instruments/vocals from the mood?
Most music playing services give me absolutely nothing. And it's terrible, to this user at least. I just want features, and no one is implementing user facing features.
edit: To be clear, i'd settle for community tagging. Hell, i'd setting for the ability to tag posts myself, with no other contribution. I can't even play music by a tag i define. I promise you, i can manage to tag some music myself - but i have no ability to do that. The best i can do is build a playlist, which is like 1990's Mail folders. Completely useless for dynamic applications.
Of course, that's why you combine filters. You keep speaking of single queries.
tag:uptempo tag:epic instruments:guitar genre:electronic
I'm not saying it will be perfect. I'm saying right now we have nearly no useful ability to discover music. I'm extremely dissatisfied with music discovery, and i have no control in most applications.
> I'm also saying that the experience of radio broadcasting over the last 50 years is that listeners almost always want something that feels extremely familiar and highly curated....
Which sucks, because it's clear most popular products (Spotify/etc) agree with you - and i detest it. I have been given zero, completely zero meaningful features to interact with. At best i have magic in the backend to "hopefully maybe implement what i might want". There is no interaction to allow me to try and shape this with any meaningful feedback over what each interaction does.
What does this Heart do? Is it permanent or is it just temporary? How do i build a dynamic playlist off of a mood? How do i remove certain artists/genres/instruments/vocals from the mood?
Most music playing services give me absolutely nothing. And it's terrible, to this user at least. I just want features, and no one is implementing user facing features.
edit: To be clear, i'd settle for community tagging. Hell, i'd setting for the ability to tag posts myself, with no other contribution. I can't even play music by a tag i define. I promise you, i can manage to tag some music myself - but i have no ability to do that. The best i can do is build a playlist, which is like 1990's Mail folders. Completely useless for dynamic applications.
So what about the Music Genome project?
http://www.pandora.com/about/mgp
http://www.pandora.com/about/mgp
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This is not "disrupting music", this is focusing on entirely irrelevant distribution and presentation issues.
About 99% of "innovation" these days seems to focus on logistical non-issues instead of the essence of things.
About 99% of "innovation" these days seems to focus on logistical non-issues instead of the essence of things.
How is this not the essence of things? Ie, the essence of discovering music? As a music lover, discovery is very important to me - as without it i stagnate on the same set of music.
It may not be the correct term of "disrupt", i don't follow the startup culture too closely - all i mean to say is, most products i've seen have bare bones discovery methods and don't let the user help inform the platform about what discovery they want. It would be like Searching Google if the only thing it gave you was precompiled lists of sites you might like.
So, i long for someone to "disrupt" this space by providing obvious (to me) content discovery and categorization methods. If you could provide me with a Spotify-like solution, and throw in meaningful ways to search, filter, discover, etc content? I'd switch in a heartbeat and i'm sure music lovers would spent quite a bit of time on that platform in the same way that they contribute to Spotify.
It may not be the correct term of "disrupt", i don't follow the startup culture too closely - all i mean to say is, most products i've seen have bare bones discovery methods and don't let the user help inform the platform about what discovery they want. It would be like Searching Google if the only thing it gave you was precompiled lists of sites you might like.
So, i long for someone to "disrupt" this space by providing obvious (to me) content discovery and categorization methods. If you could provide me with a Spotify-like solution, and throw in meaningful ways to search, filter, discover, etc content? I'd switch in a heartbeat and i'm sure music lovers would spent quite a bit of time on that platform in the same way that they contribute to Spotify.
throwaway21111 needs to be spanked for this audacious opinion. Is there an Overton-Window manual for successful "Hacker" News posts?
I haven't used Pandora in a long time, but I have to say that everything you mention can be applied to my experience of Spotify's discovery/radio features as well. Plus it handles playing songs on-demand.
I can't seem to get spotify to recommend me anything besides rap music. I use the checkboxes to indicate I like classical, the Dead, Phish, Dylan, Cash, and more but I have never once had anything besides rap music show up on my discover weekly. It's a bit frustrating.
There's recommendations at the bottom of individual playlists now so I can look there but still a pain that I can't get a nice mix in my discover weekly.
There's recommendations at the bottom of individual playlists now so I can look there but still a pain that I can't get a nice mix in my discover weekly.
What do you actually listen to? Do you listen to a lot of rap? If so, that's likely to cause your discovery issue.
Same can be said for Google Play All Access.
And you can fill the gaps in their catalog by uploading your own music.
Tldr: I really don't see the case for pandora in 2017.
And you can fill the gaps in their catalog by uploading your own music.
Tldr: I really don't see the case for pandora in 2017.
The most important thing for Google Play Music after the "upload your own stuff":
It does a great job caching songs ahead while you're on Wifi, so you can minimize data usage while out and about. Plus, with the caching it also works offline perfectly well.
I feel a bit sorry for all the other services, but on a technical level Google Play Music has outplayed them all entirely.
It does a great job caching songs ahead while you're on Wifi, so you can minimize data usage while out and about. Plus, with the caching it also works offline perfectly well.
I feel a bit sorry for all the other services, but on a technical level Google Play Music has outplayed them all entirely.
I like and use Play Music, but find their recommendation engine to be less great. The channels work a bit differently, too.
Oddly enough I love GP's recommendation set so much more than Pandora's. It's so much better attuned to what I like and don't and what I like to explore. It's very good at distinguishing what I like and what I don't, and I'm pretty picky about what I listen to.
Pandora did it first, and not just by a few years.
I was amazed by Pandora's recommendations too. That is, until it gave me the error "We're sorry, but we couldn't find any more music to play on your station right now. Try switching stations."
I never saw that message before; what kind of station was it?
It was my main (only?) station. I had some 30 songs on it, pretty good sampling of my tastes (pretty typical pop/rock/etc. music... Daughtry, Train, etc.). It gave me great recommendations which for a while completely blew my mind over and over (when my friend told me about the human classification part, I was like, I KNEW there was no way a machine could've done this so well), but it eventually outright failed and just gave me that message. So I gave up on it too. I guess that's better than Spotify which just plays my own songs over and over again at my "radio" stations...
I got that message before. I found that if you switched stations and then switched right back the problem would magically go away.
Not long after I discovered Pandora, they banned me for living in the wrong country. No, they didn't want my dollars. Off with you scum in non-English speaking countries, your money probably smells funny.
It's ok, there's Spotify now, which doesn't arbitrarily ban users for living in the wrong place. Spotify has become a much better, much more flexible service. Even if Pandora were to lift its ban on foreigners, there is no longer a market for their service here. Sorry Pandora, you had the momentum, but threw it away.
It's ok, there's Spotify now, which doesn't arbitrarily ban users for living in the wrong place. Spotify has become a much better, much more flexible service. Even if Pandora were to lift its ban on foreigners, there is no longer a market for their service here. Sorry Pandora, you had the momentum, but threw it away.
#1: That has to do with terms of licensing deals imposed by the music labels, not an arbitrary decision by Pandora that they don't want to accept your money.
#2: It is the case with ALL music and video streaming providers. Apparently you lucked out with Spotify, but that could be the opposite for someone else.
Stupid, yes... but the bad guys here are the record labels rather than the streaming services.
#2: It is the case with ALL music and video streaming providers. Apparently you lucked out with Spotify, but that could be the opposite for someone else.
Stupid, yes... but the bad guys here are the record labels rather than the streaming services.
It's 2017 and music labels/companies still want to say, "you can't hear this song because we haven't settled distribution rights... and can't make any money off of it... so... poo on you"
Spotify doesn't let you use them if you live in the wrong country either, you just happen to live in a right country for them.
Not that it's much better, but Spotify will let you live in the wrong country as long as you can pay from the right country (like Apple, they depend on the billing address for debit/credit card).
But that's all ignoring the actually source of these restrictions. They don't come from the services themselves. They come from the outdated music industry structure that hasn't kept up with the internet-enabled globalized world.
But that's all ignoring the actually source of these restrictions. They don't come from the services themselves. They come from the outdated music industry structure that hasn't kept up with the internet-enabled globalized world.
i can't access spotify. apparantly i live in one of those wrong places.
It wasn't high on the user count, compared to Spotify (and probably Pandora) but Rdio was __the__ music streaming service for any music nerd. Their recommendations was better than Pandora (probably why Pandora bought them out); UI/UX was better than Spotify (ability to browse on web while listening on phone was a feature I miss greatly); the breadth of information (on the site / app) available about a song / album / artist / recording beats anything I ever encountered outside of a now shuttered 'pirate' library.
The last one is something that no other service I have encountered even considers (maybe Spotify has some recording info?). Also their API was a joy to use and very helpful support staff.
Sorry for the rant, especially when comparing your observation to something that no longer exists.
Edit: but one can hope that Pandora will put all of that wonderfulness together one day in to their own product.
The last one is something that no other service I have encountered even considers (maybe Spotify has some recording info?). Also their API was a joy to use and very helpful support staff.
Sorry for the rant, especially when comparing your observation to something that no longer exists.
Edit: but one can hope that Pandora will put all of that wonderfulness together one day in to their own product.
Music Genome Project is unique in that the annotations are done by humans. So it's very difficult to outperform. I hear Spotify, with the help of The Echo Nest's machine learning expertise, is close though.
It was fun discovering music with pandora, but I got sick of hearing the same thing over and over again. I started paying for Spotify. I discover music with spotify too by just searching for people's playlists too. Sometimes I just wanna listen to the same track in a loop for hours. Sometimes I don't, I love that choice.
This is still pretty true for me today. I use Pandora for discovery, and Spotify for maintaining fixed playlists.
Google play music actually works great for both of these functions, but the app is extremely unstable on my phone (Moto X running 5.1), so it isn't an option for me.
Google play music actually works great for both of these functions, but the app is extremely unstable on my phone (Moto X running 5.1), so it isn't an option for me.
It is a great free service but I don't pay $5-10/month to not be able to listen to a specific song I want to hear.
Pandora's model of not having that feature will always outweigh their music matching algorithm.
Pandora's model of not having that feature will always outweigh their music matching algorithm.
I've told this before but I haven't used pandora since they wouldn't stop playing me ashley madison ads even after I complained to support about it. They said they only played ads that network tv would run. Every other ad for 6 months was asking me to cheat on my wife.
We all know how that went.
We all know how that went.
You know you can eliminate the ads for $3 a month, right? It's pretty cheap compared to the other streaming services.
You're likely talking to the wrong user base. There's a reason why ads business models work, people rather deal with ads than pay anything.
Though your suggestion would solve one set of problems, it doesn't solve the fact that it was an inappropriate ad with a crappy response from the company if true. Guess network tv allowed, includes those 2am ads.
Though your suggestion would solve one set of problems, it doesn't solve the fact that it was an inappropriate ad with a crappy response from the company if true. Guess network tv allowed, includes those 2am ads.
I guess. We actually talked on the phone. When the lady said that to me I said, "Are you seriously trying to make that claim." Silence. Then she made some non-apology and ended the call.
You know this was not yesterday but in 2010 right?
IIRC it was like 70$ for premium. You know the radio and their competitors were free back then right, and the radio had less ads? I had actually paid previously but they screwed up my account a few times, I forget the details.
Now I get prime music with my prime account and a bunch of other stuff including video for $9 a month.
I thought it was pretty dumb to pay for a service where I couldn't pick what I wanted to hear. I also didn't play for XM at $10 a month when it came out.
IIRC it was like 70$ for premium. You know the radio and their competitors were free back then right, and the radio had less ads? I had actually paid previously but they screwed up my account a few times, I forget the details.
Now I get prime music with my prime account and a bunch of other stuff including video for $9 a month.
I thought it was pretty dumb to pay for a service where I couldn't pick what I wanted to hear. I also didn't play for XM at $10 a month when it came out.
In 2010 it was $40 per the year, or about $3.33 per month. Ridiculously cheap in my opinion.
Yes, not a great response however the time value of calling in to complain easily exceeds $40.
Yes, not a great response however the time value of calling in to complain easily exceeds $40.
> the time value of calling in to complain easily exceeds $40.
Fortunately, at least some people value their principles more than their time.
Fortunately, at least some people value their principles more than their time.
How exactly is that a principle? He wasn't forced to listen to the ads, he was able to pay to have ads removed.
His principle was that he found the ad unpleasant and didn't want to hear it anymore.
I'm all for fighting for what you believe is right but it's a bit exaggerated when you're aren't forced to use the service, can pay for the service to remove ads and yet you claim to stand on principle.
If you were standing on principle, you would refuse to use Pandora because they are funded by an "unsavory" company and not just call to say you didn't like the ads playing on the free service that they're providing to you.
His principle was that he found the ad unpleasant and didn't want to hear it anymore.
I'm all for fighting for what you believe is right but it's a bit exaggerated when you're aren't forced to use the service, can pay for the service to remove ads and yet you claim to stand on principle.
If you were standing on principle, you would refuse to use Pandora because they are funded by an "unsavory" company and not just call to say you didn't like the ads playing on the free service that they're providing to you.
stopping using them without telling them why is pretty in-effective. They turned the campaign off a few weeks later.
You're right on the price I was going off memory. I actually value the entertainment of being disgruntled with a product sometimrs and talking to CS about it. I actually value new experience even if it's not really please tell. I was deposed once on pretty easy terms and thought it was very interesting.
And that $40 saved apparently got me 40 hacker news points as well ;).
And that $40 saved apparently got me 40 hacker news points as well ;).
Funny enough, can't you go into settings and change your gender? Pretty sure that would dump you into a new bucket of marketing.
Though yeah, that's an offensive ad to have to encounter.
Though yeah, that's an offensive ad to have to encounter.
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> Every other ad for 6 months was asking me to cheat on my wife. We all know how that went.
You cheated on your wife?
You cheated on your wife?
I really think Pandora should start full on-demand music service for additional subscription fee instead of just being radio. Playlist creation and sharing is becoming huge but still in fancy from tech perspective. Lot of people are stuck on particular service just because of their carefully created playlists over long time. That generates significant sticky factor. I've personally paid Rhapsody subscription for couple of years without much using it just to keep my playlists alive. This in addition can massively help improve radio itself. Also it can eliminate all that nonsense of not allowing to skip unlimited number of tracks. In my opinion, Pandora still has best of the best radio service (although far from perfect) and if they can supplement that with huge catelogues like Google Music with family subscription, there would be one more reason to stay there.
They bought rdio. A service that was regarded by many, including me, as the best streaming service, certainly better than Spotify and with a thriving, enthusiastic community of music lovers - even today I still can't comment on or discuss albums, playlists and songs with others in Spotify, which is a social graveyard.
And then they shut it down.
And then they shut it down.
That's exactly why I like Spotify - it doesn't shove the social nonsense down my throat like everybody else. Don't take it the bad way but I don't care what you, or anybody else with very few exceptions, thinks about this or that album.
Neither do I. I'm very selective about my music, which is why I only followed very specific people on rdio, which led to very valuable social circles. I only saw their recommendations and what was trending within this community.
This doesn't happen at all with Spotify. And maybe it wouldn't work due to the rather mainstream audience / user base the service has. The problem remains however: The music I listen to and buy is very rarely discovered on Spotify. I can't share the rave reviews of Discover Weekly at all. - it's very mediocre to me.
This doesn't happen at all with Spotify. And maybe it wouldn't work due to the rather mainstream audience / user base the service has. The problem remains however: The music I listen to and buy is very rarely discovered on Spotify. I can't share the rave reviews of Discover Weekly at all. - it's very mediocre to me.
How much do you listen to music on Spotify? If you were rating music on scale of 1-10, how much music that you listen to on Spotify is at a 7 or above?
My Discover Weekly used to be pretty mediocre until I started better curating my playlists. I'd grab a playlist, throw it on in the background and call it good enough. There were certainly songs that I didn't like playing, and the algorithm had no way of differentiating what I did and didn't like.
I pruned my playlists so that the music playing is only stuff that I highly enjoy. This made a huge change to my Discover Weekly and my Daily Mixes.
My Discover Weekly used to be pretty mediocre until I started better curating my playlists. I'd grab a playlist, throw it on in the background and call it good enough. There were certainly songs that I didn't like playing, and the algorithm had no way of differentiating what I did and didn't like.
I pruned my playlists so that the music playing is only stuff that I highly enjoy. This made a huge change to my Discover Weekly and my Daily Mixes.
I use Spotify as a way to preview music in order to make a buying decision - so there may be a lot of confusing things for Spotify to figure out. However I also maintain many playlists which are large and only consist of songs I like.
Yet, Discover Weekly keeps recommending me music that is already known to me (or even part of those playlists) or simply not that relevant. My Bandcamp feed does a better job.
Yet, Discover Weekly keeps recommending me music that is already known to me (or even part of those playlists) or simply not that relevant. My Bandcamp feed does a better job.
I mostly enjoy streaming music, as I find it a hassle to manage a music library. For about 3 years, I was a paying Pandora member, and mostly happy with it. I had created one super station with 250-ish artists. One day, I decided to create a new station for each artist. That went fine until I hit 100 artists. I email customer support to ask if they could lift the limit, or just remove it all together. They replied...
Thanks for writing. There is a 100 station limit on all accounts, free or paid. You'll need to delete some stations you don't listen to much anymore in order to create more. To delete a station, click on 'options' and select 'Delete this Station. Sorry for the inconvenience, but thanks for your support!
That was the day I switched to Rdio. I loved Rdio up until the day Pandora shutdown the service. I most certainly didn't go back to Pandora after that.
Now I'm pretty happy with Google Play Music. Hopefully they won't nerf it.
Thanks for writing. There is a 100 station limit on all accounts, free or paid. You'll need to delete some stations you don't listen to much anymore in order to create more. To delete a station, click on 'options' and select 'Delete this Station. Sorry for the inconvenience, but thanks for your support!
That was the day I switched to Rdio. I loved Rdio up until the day Pandora shutdown the service. I most certainly didn't go back to Pandora after that.
Now I'm pretty happy with Google Play Music. Hopefully they won't nerf it.
You made me realize that I really like that about Spotify
It's not as if they forced you to participate and the quality of the discussion was rather worthwhile - it certainly wasn't a Youtube comment section.
In my case, without social features and lack of discussion Spotify is relegated to a simple preview hub for music I discovered elsewhere with an incomplete catalog. I'm considering dropping my subscription since I buy and own my music anyway.
The community and the discovery through it is the feature that made rdio special. Bandcamp comes close since the users are also very passionate. Spotify, however? Discover Weekly can't replace real human curation. The results are either already known to me (which Spotify should know) or just very mediocre. It falls short like most other recommendation engines.
In my case, without social features and lack of discussion Spotify is relegated to a simple preview hub for music I discovered elsewhere with an incomplete catalog. I'm considering dropping my subscription since I buy and own my music anyway.
The community and the discovery through it is the feature that made rdio special. Bandcamp comes close since the users are also very passionate. Spotify, however? Discover Weekly can't replace real human curation. The results are either already known to me (which Spotify should know) or just very mediocre. It falls short like most other recommendation engines.
But that would make them just like Spotify, and several other services. I think it would be hard to compete that way.
And I have nothing to confirm this, but I doubt preserving playlists is a common reason to keep paying for a music service. If you really want it, you can find a way to export it, or copy it by hand. Otherwise you just make a new playlist from scratch.
And I have nothing to confirm this, but I doubt preserving playlists is a common reason to keep paying for a music service. If you really want it, you can find a way to export it, or copy it by hand. Otherwise you just make a new playlist from scratch.
> But that would make them just like Spotify, and several other services. I think it would be hard to compete that way.
Its even harder to compete if your product is crappy... which is essentially what the OP was suggesting.
> If you really want it, you can find a way to export it, or copy it by hand.
The thing is that most people don't really want it. Therefore it is significantly harder to move to Pandora than it is to leave Pandora.
Its even harder to compete if your product is crappy... which is essentially what the OP was suggesting.
> If you really want it, you can find a way to export it, or copy it by hand.
The thing is that most people don't really want it. Therefore it is significantly harder to move to Pandora than it is to leave Pandora.
My wife listens to and enjoys Pandora daily. She especially enjoys the curated playlists put together by Pandora. I remember the gimmick at launch had the system build playlists for you based on your preferences. It's interesting to see how the service has pivoted to provide a more radio station-like experience.
What other services do folks enjoy? What's the best streaming service out today?
What other services do folks enjoy? What's the best streaming service out today?
I use Spotify since I get it for free with my mobile phone provider (well, not actually free, but it's cheaper with my provider than on its own).
Discover weekly is usually really good and choosing good music, it's a shame that it's only once a week. Spotify radio is also usually quite good and making a playlist of songs based on an artist or a song.
They also now have "your daily mix", which I'm fairly sure only takes songs that you've listened to before, but often gives me songs I haven't heard in a while.
They also have running radio, which matches songs to your running pace. I don't use it though, since I don't run.
I haven't used any other streaming services out there, but Spotify does everything I need it to. The one thing it doesn't have is Taylor Swift, but none of the streaming services do.
Before Spotify, I had actually never paid for music, I'd usually torrent it (or sometimes use youtube). But the sheer convenience of Spotify has caused me to hand out a few bucks a month for it.
Discover weekly is usually really good and choosing good music, it's a shame that it's only once a week. Spotify radio is also usually quite good and making a playlist of songs based on an artist or a song.
They also now have "your daily mix", which I'm fairly sure only takes songs that you've listened to before, but often gives me songs I haven't heard in a while.
They also have running radio, which matches songs to your running pace. I don't use it though, since I don't run.
I haven't used any other streaming services out there, but Spotify does everything I need it to. The one thing it doesn't have is Taylor Swift, but none of the streaming services do.
Before Spotify, I had actually never paid for music, I'd usually torrent it (or sometimes use youtube). But the sheer convenience of Spotify has caused me to hand out a few bucks a month for it.
Apple Music has Taylor Swift if I remember correctly
AM is missing other things, like beyonce's latest album.
The music streaming services are competing now with exclusive albums (this was Tidal's big draw; are they even still around?), to the detriment of their users.
Definitely also recommend Spotify. Has enough that if I can't find something I want, I'm quickly distracted by something else soon enough.
The Discover and Daily Mix options have been great. It's brought dozens of great artists and tracks to my attention that I don't know I'd have found otherwise.
I'm sure they're likely also on other services, but I really like the instrumental versions of some albums (by RJD2, Aesop Rock, etc) - often makes them good options for the office.
The Discover and Daily Mix options have been great. It's brought dozens of great artists and tracks to my attention that I don't know I'd have found otherwise.
I'm sure they're likely also on other services, but I really like the instrumental versions of some albums (by RJD2, Aesop Rock, etc) - often makes them good options for the office.
Spotify Radio is horrible. It always plays the same songs over and over, for months. It doesn't seem to learn or adapt at all.
This comment made me realize that I switched to spotify for a more on demand service, but now discover weekly (an automated curated playlist based on my tastes) is one of my most listened to playlists.
I try to use Bandcamp whenever I can. Most bands make their music available to stream for free on there and you're able to play their albums straight. There's no playlists or queue for songs but you can buy the music you like for relatively cheap to support the bands. I don't think the Bandcamp cut is that deep on the transactions either.
You won't find many, if any, big names on there but I see it as a great service for independent music. They also have discovery pages to explore genres.
It takes some work to use but I at least don't feel like I'm cheating bands on it.
You won't find many, if any, big names on there but I see it as a great service for independent music. They also have discovery pages to explore genres.
It takes some work to use but I at least don't feel like I'm cheating bands on it.
I use Google Music. I have the family plan and I use role accounts in my "family" for my car and for my Sonos. It includes YouTube Red in the same subscription.
I also use Google Music. The stuff they added in since the Songza acquisition makes it (IMO) a better "Pandora" than Pandora ever was for me.
I feel like I had the opposite experience with Pandora. Back in the day, just playing Pandora through my browser, I'd up or down-vote most songs and I'd get these great playlists where I'd discover lots of music. It was great.
But with Pandora on various user-surly devices (car stereo, Roku, etc) I just don't have that interaction and it seems like playlists just drift off into nonsense or repeat endlessly.
But with Pandora on various user-surly devices (car stereo, Roku, etc) I just don't have that interaction and it seems like playlists just drift off into nonsense or repeat endlessly.
I enjoy listening to music with YT Music app. They seem to have many different versions of many songs I enjoy. Though, I am probably biased since I work at YouTube. Definitely check it out though, and decide for yourself.
Do you mean YouTube red? I can't find any reference to YouTube Music on the iOS App Store.
I believe it's Android-only?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...
It's also on iPhone
Here ya go: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/youtube-music/id1017492454?m...
Here ya go: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/youtube-music/id1017492454?m...
If i remember right it's a part of YouTube red. It uses a special app though, on iOS it's called YouTube Music.
I understand the licensing deals with record companies set much lower prices for radio-station-like ux compared to on-demand ux. ML-built playlists aren't necessarily ideally equivalent to the playlist you'd make yourself with infinite time and patience, but... I wonder if licensing terms influenced the pivot.
I'm not sure how much ML applies to Pandora. They apply a list of characteristics to music, which is done manually, and select music with similar characteristics. Their algorithm seems to favor music is cheap to play from an unknown artist and small label.
Their algorithm seems to favor music is cheap to play from an unknown artist and small label.
One exception I noticed a couple of years back is that Pandora started playing Mumford and Sons on pretty much all of my stations. I like their music, but it is definitely not dubstep, so something fishy was definitely going on. That year M&S was Pandora's highest paid artist.
One exception I noticed a couple of years back is that Pandora started playing Mumford and Sons on pretty much all of my stations. I like their music, but it is definitely not dubstep, so something fishy was definitely going on. That year M&S was Pandora's highest paid artist.
Payola 2.0
I subscribe to tidal. It is expensive.. $20/month for "hifi" streaming. It is the only streaming service that offers lossless streaming. Their catalog is good - if I can't find a band it's not a huge surprise.
Their playlists are pretty decent - I miss a bit of the community playlist building that spotify has. I like that there is a company offering a better quality of music and am willing to support that.
I used to use what.cd before it was shut down. Now I'm not really sure where to go...
Same. I tried Spotify recently but the compression is awful - I prefer FM to Spotify's awful compression. What.cd had most content in V0 as well as lossless.
What do you mean with "compression". You can set it to use high quality streaming where it's 320kbit ogg or something.
I meant the quality of the sound based on the audio format.
Thanks for pointing this out! I had it set on Automatic and it sounded consistently like 128kbit CBR MP3 or worse (maybe they were sending down their 96kbit Normal stream - yuck). I switched it to Extreme now, hopefully that solves my issue.
Thanks for pointing this out! I had it set on Automatic and it sounded consistently like 128kbit CBR MP3 or worse (maybe they were sending down their 96kbit Normal stream - yuck). I switched it to Extreme now, hopefully that solves my issue.
Since the what sysop decided to take it down a few other trackers have popped up. The one that has the most Potential would be passtheheadphones.me. It has competent staff and a great community. The second website would be apollo.rip. I would suggest avoiding it since the staff is quite incompetent. PTH will open up recruitment like wcd used to do on their irc.
I am also a Pandora fanboy. I pay for their ad-free service. I have heard more "new to me" music through Pandora than any other source, and for that I am truly grateful.
So about ~150 people (Wikipedia says they have 2200+ employees).
Wow. What do all those people do? What's the difference between a 100 employee music streamer and a 2000 employee music streamer?
Pandora acquired Ticketfly and The Next Big Sound a couple of years back so they're not just a music streaming company. I still can't tell you what they all do though!
They acquired Rdio as well.
They seem to have a decent number of partnerships going on. My Mazda dashboard has Pandora integration built in.
I would like to know this too! Say my team has 40 people on it. Every month at least, someone asks what do "40 people do?" and I take them through it 2-4 people at a time across several lines of business maintaining and improving lots of software.
Would be amazing to see some people break down their teams publicly!
Would be amazing to see some people break down their teams publicly!
Agreed - it would be a great bit of content-marketing for a recruitment agency. Lever, TripleByte, Muse... one of you sort it out please!
It didn't look like a 2000 person company when I went to their office. They do a lot of random platform integrations / clients & testing themselves, which probably increases the engineering team size a bit.
I haven't looked at Pandora in a few years, but IIRC they were a lot like Groupon in that they had a huge sales force catering to local businesses - the type that would traditionally advertise on local radio stations.
Probably like 50% sales, 25% HR/Legal/Admin, 25% engineering/ops
Once you are a public company, you need a robust finance, accounting, and HR infrastructure, along with orgs like investor relations. Plus selling ads is tough. You need a large salesforce to constantly call people and try to sell them, you need account managers to manage relationship with the big advertisers. Now spread these people globally, you are selling different ads in different geographies. In addition, now you need ad operations to track metrics, report on it, and share revenue. This is even before you get into product and engineering.
Thank you for looking this up. I found the use of a percentage in the title very strange, why not just state the number of employees or "150/2200" employees or "150 employees (7%)". It could have been 7 people in total.
That was my exact thought. I initially thought this was not newsworthy. I was surprised they had so many employees.
Article talks about Apple Music and Spotify - but I think they're is a bigger problem: Amazon Prime Music.
Bezos is killing the streaming space with 'good enough' services all bundled into the same, basic Prime subscription.
The Prime Music app on iOS got updated last year and it even looks great.
Streaming music is a commodity, good luck fighting for scraps.
Bezos is killing the streaming space with 'good enough' services all bundled into the same, basic Prime subscription.
The Prime Music app on iOS got updated last year and it even looks great.
Streaming music is a commodity, good luck fighting for scraps.
I just received my pandora one subscription renewal notice and it is due on Sunday. I've thought about it and the only reason I would stay with Pandora is that I have trained it to play music I like. When I turn on my station, I know I'll hear music I want to work to. With that said ...
Today was the first time I've listened to pandora in close to a month. I've been listening to playlists through Prime Music .. the free version. I listen through our echos, my phone and my desktop. I haven't missed the tailored station I've built through Pandora over 10+ years. I think you are correct with "good enough."
Oh, and the Pandora Premium doesn't sound like much of a game changer unless I missed a killer feature:
http://blog.pandora.com/us/coming-soon-pandora-premium/
Today was the first time I've listened to pandora in close to a month. I've been listening to playlists through Prime Music .. the free version. I listen through our echos, my phone and my desktop. I haven't missed the tailored station I've built through Pandora over 10+ years. I think you are correct with "good enough."
Oh, and the Pandora Premium doesn't sound like much of a game changer unless I missed a killer feature:
http://blog.pandora.com/us/coming-soon-pandora-premium/
I'd say a bigger one is Youtube. You'd be hard pressed to find a track that isn't an Youtube. In addition there are plenty of live sets and DJ mixes. I don't find the ads too intrusive. It works well enough.
Whenever I'm at a party and people are putting on their own music... it's YouTube
Use Amazon Prime, but they'll need to deliver a bigger catalog and better recommendation feature for me to try Prime Music. I have hundreds of songs saved in Spotify playlists, love the selection, as well as the recommendation feature (Discover) - Spotify is sticky for me.
Totally. I pay the $15/month for Spotify family (up to six people); I have Amazon Prime and I've never once used a Prime digital service.
Prime Video is very good by the way. Their original series catalog is expanding, but they also have other great shows available. For instance, you can stream lots of popular HBO classics for free (Curb, The Wire, etc.).
Oh, and the video player is excellent. The "X-Ray" feature is pretty nifty when it's done well: it lists on-screen actors, name of music playing, and general trivia. The Prime Video Android app is surprisingly smooth as well, and in my opinion is as good as the Netflix app.
For me, it's essentially a free video service, as I already need Prime for the free shipping.
Oh, and the video player is excellent. The "X-Ray" feature is pretty nifty when it's done well: it lists on-screen actors, name of music playing, and general trivia. The Prime Video Android app is surprisingly smooth as well, and in my opinion is as good as the Netflix app.
For me, it's essentially a free video service, as I already need Prime for the free shipping.
My problem with Prime Video is that Amazon is that there's no good way to watch it on your TV, unless you feel like buying their own streaming boxes. They refuse to release an app for Apple TV or Android TV, the Roku channel is merely serviceable (like all Roku channels), and the PS4 and Xbox One apps don't work as expected (for example, the Xbox One app doesn't respond to the official hardware remote's play/puase button).
The experience on their own hardware is great; everything else is second-class.
The experience on their own hardware is great; everything else is second-class.
Same goes for Prime Video. Almost nothing I like to watch, though some HBO shows are (were?) available as part of Prime for awhile, which was nice. Beyond that, I find their catalog to be quite lacking in comparison to HBO Now and Netflix.
The entire HBO back catalog is free on Prime. Prime has a somewhat limited selection but Amazon Instant Video in general is excellent. If you think of it as pay per view you'll be a lot happier. I for one do not mind shelling out a few bucks for a movie.
IMHO it's way more worth it to just get an HBO subscription; the quality there is much, much higher, and you can play it on many platforms. Certainly more than amazon video....
Others have made similar points, but I think it bears repeating - Prime is (currently) a clearly inferior offering for music and video. In both cases, their selection isn't even close to their competitors and the UI/UX are so completely fucked that they're unusable a good percentage of the times I try to access them.
I agree that streaming media is becoming a commodity. If Amazon made modern apps and shelled out some cash for better libraries, they could deal serious blows to Spotify and Netflix.
I agree that streaming media is becoming a commodity. If Amazon made modern apps and shelled out some cash for better libraries, they could deal serious blows to Spotify and Netflix.
I agree about music, but completely disagree about video. We watch Amazon Video 10 to 1 compared to Netflix. Amazon's selection works for us.
I think it's a significant dark pattern how they include paid rentals in the interface for Prime video. If you're already a paying streaming customer, why should you be presented with videos you don't have access to, unless you pay even more?
>Prime is (currently) a clearly inferior offering for music and video
Yes, but for a very casual streaming music listener like myself who also has a pretty big music library on iTunes, free (with Prime) + Echo makes paying for any other music streaming service just not worth it. I'll take my free streaming and buy a song or album every now and then with the savings.
Amazon is somewhat inferior to Netflix in streaming. I have both in this case. But there are Amazon exclusives as well plus again, for many people, what's available with Prime is good enough to not make it worth paying for Netflix.
Yes, but for a very casual streaming music listener like myself who also has a pretty big music library on iTunes, free (with Prime) + Echo makes paying for any other music streaming service just not worth it. I'll take my free streaming and buy a song or album every now and then with the savings.
Amazon is somewhat inferior to Netflix in streaming. I have both in this case. But there are Amazon exclusives as well plus again, for many people, what's available with Prime is good enough to not make it worth paying for Netflix.
I have tried to use the Prime music service in the past, and the catalog was always terrible. Maybe I'll check again.
The way to use it is for preprogrammed playlists. If you want some Christmas music or jazz music or classical for the background, they've got something, with no commercials. Or you might use the playlist to discover a thing or two. It's worthless for finding a specific piece of music on demand.
I would never pay for Prime Music on its own but it's a nice throw-in. I can also see why it would be good to have with an Amazon Echo.
I would never pay for Prime Music on its own but it's a nice throw-in. I can also see why it would be good to have with an Amazon Echo.
Yeah, I already have Google Music and have looked at Prime music as a replacement so I could save the $8/month.
Amazon is killing it. Bezos works there just like hundreds of other talented and hardworking people.
So is video. Netflix shareholders haven't realised that yet though, so they're still buying more shares at 350 times annual earnings.
Netflix has been pivoting away from being just a video streaming service for a while, that's why they've been working so hard on their original content.
Yup. Today the main reason to pay for Netflix is the content, lack of ads, and universal device support.
iTunes has match and local music; Spotify allows playing local music. What is the amazon story for combining previously owned music with streaming music?
I remember emailing Pandora in what must have been 2008 realizing about the fact that I could not use the service from Sweden (I had been a foreign exchange student in high school in the US). I got a reply from Tim Westergren which felt huge.
I would not be as much into 80's synth pop without Pandora, that's for sure.
I would not be as much into 80's synth pop without Pandora, that's for sure.
Last.fm was the only one that worked for me. Musical preference is a perfect social recommendation problem.
Pandora's supposedly socially-neutral algorithms always circled in on tighter and tighter loops of bland.
This was a bunch of years ago. Maybe they fixed it.
Pandora's supposedly socially-neutral algorithms always circled in on tighter and tighter loops of bland.
This was a bunch of years ago. Maybe they fixed it.
Spotify is lightyears from Last.fm both in personal recommendation and album/artist/track radios.
I really miss last.fm :(
I really miss last.fm :(
Music streaming/distribution has to be a heavily commoditized business.
Moreover, even the music itself is heavily commoditized, it's hard to eke out a living unless you build a major brand, or can 'roll your own' fanbase.
I don't even understand how Spotify can stay in business in the long run with competitive margin erosion.
Perhaps when the industry shakes out, the major streamers will have some value chain power and hold onto their margins.
In the meantime, I'm weary of Spotify's valuation as long term credible.
Moreover, even the music itself is heavily commoditized, it's hard to eke out a living unless you build a major brand, or can 'roll your own' fanbase.
I don't even understand how Spotify can stay in business in the long run with competitive margin erosion.
Perhaps when the industry shakes out, the major streamers will have some value chain power and hold onto their margins.
In the meantime, I'm weary of Spotify's valuation as long term credible.
I miss turntable.fm. If only Spotify / Pandora has it, then I am a happier customer.
This is such a non-issue for many users, but the simple fact that Pandora requires flash on their web interface is a deal breaker for me.
They switched to HTML5 like 5 years ago.
If they did, they don't provide any good ways to enable it or cleanly fall back from Flash on Windows.
Pandora asks me to install Flash on Safari 10.
Change your user agent to Firefox and it should load the HTML5 version
A well designed website shouldn't require a user agent change to get added functionality. If I have to mess with my user agent, install resource heavy plugins or change my browser of choice to use your service, then you just lost me as a customer.
Sucks because it's practically the only tech company in Oakland.
There's VSCO, Fluid, Roofstock, LaunchDarkly, and Uber coming soon. There's probably a few more great companies that I'm forgetting.
a shameless plug for the coworking space my company uses, the Port Workspaces [1].
there are a ton of startups in here; tech, nonprofits & more. it's a huge, awesome, quirky space (used to be a mall years ago), just around the corner from Pandora, easily walkable from Bart, close to the lake & uptown/nightlife.
[1] http://portworkspaces.com
[1] http://portworkspaces.com
Uber is also moving into the old Sears building that's a few blocks from Pandora's offices
Yup. I was literally just about to apply this month to make my commute sane....
[deleted]
Maybe now they'll finally consider expanding to Europe?
I don't know if their own hype is true, but I always wanted to try their music recommendation service. It used to be that you could at least play with it (get similar song titles, even if you couldn't listen to them), but now I can't even see the main page.
I don't know if their own hype is true, but I always wanted to try their music recommendation service. It used to be that you could at least play with it (get similar song titles, even if you couldn't listen to them), but now I can't even see the main page.
have you tried last.fm.
i loved the service before they where bought by cbs, i used it to stream music, the playlist created where great and i could discover new music. now with spotify its the same songs or artists all the time.
i loved the service before they where bought by cbs, i used it to stream music, the playlist created where great and i could discover new music. now with spotify its the same songs or artists all the time.
last.fm and Spotify both have the same problem:
Let's say I like this one song from a Chilean singer. Not that album, not that singer, just that one specific song.
What both systems do is recommend "here is all of South America's music, and here are all Chilean singers from that decade". Did you pick a Chilean rock song from the late 80's? Here's a Peruvian Charango song from the early '90s. They don't know anything about the songs themselves, only their network effect.
Pandora's "Music Genome Project" was supposedly designed around this issue, but I can't say whether it actually works or not.
Let's say I like this one song from a Chilean singer. Not that album, not that singer, just that one specific song.
What both systems do is recommend "here is all of South America's music, and here are all Chilean singers from that decade". Did you pick a Chilean rock song from the late 80's? Here's a Peruvian Charango song from the early '90s. They don't know anything about the songs themselves, only their network effect.
Pandora's "Music Genome Project" was supposedly designed around this issue, but I can't say whether it actually works or not.
sorry i did not have that feeling with last.fm, i had the premium feature of last.fm ( before they removed it ) so you could not request a song but you could play a playlist based on tags or artists ( if i remember it correctly )
the suggestions where great, i loved that feature. i still scrobble from my desktop to last.fm and im in 98 percentile of all users. i listen to a lot of music and with spotify i get the felling its always the same , it cannot learn my preference so i have to manually search for playlists that im ok with.
i would say i listen to deep house mostly, but there is also rock, and hip hop, but i get only the latest edm tracks in my recommendation playlist in spotify, with lastfm i would get indie rock and hip hop artists.
the suggestions where great, i loved that feature. i still scrobble from my desktop to last.fm and im in 98 percentile of all users. i listen to a lot of music and with spotify i get the felling its always the same , it cannot learn my preference so i have to manually search for playlists that im ok with.
i would say i listen to deep house mostly, but there is also rock, and hip hop, but i get only the latest edm tracks in my recommendation playlist in spotify, with lastfm i would get indie rock and hip hop artists.
I second this, last.fm suggestion in and radio in 2010 was better than spotify in 2017.
Funny this comes right after they released a brand new app, after they had the same old web app for more than 4 years it seemed.
Funny. Just saw a medium article where some talking head from Pandora was giving patronizing advice about how to fire people.
I know I'm sounding like such a fanboy but I discovered some of my favorite bands and artists after hearing them first through Pandora's recommendations. I've often heard songs I liked at random places, shazammed them, and created a channel on Pandora, which has led to some really good artists that I would've never heard through other media. So for music discovery, Pandora is where its at. I really hope this company sticks around.