Monday, March 3, 2008

9. Pandora - It's a new kind of radio

Pandora is a new way to listen to music, but not just any music, music that you choose. You tell Pandora a song or artist you like and it plays songs for you passed on your recommendation. You can even rate the songs as it plays them to narrow down the music it plays!


So how do you get this great music listening experience? It's easy!
  1. Just sign up for an account by entering your email and password.
  2. Pick and artist and a song and start listening!

You can also:



21 comments:

Tish's blog said...

Pandora is nothing new for those of us who work evenings on the second floor. It is a great way to have music while working and if you keep it low enough, it doesn't disturb patrons. I'm glad to see this inclcuded because it is something that I think is very usable!

Tab said...

Pandora is a pretty cool application! Thanks guys!

Anonymous said...

Wow. Usually I'm way behind this curve, but I've already subscribed to Pandora. It's so amazing!

I think the coolest thing is the way Pandora can "learn" your musical tastes, and offer you new bands or singers that you tend to like. It's uncanny. Thanks!

PS: OK, I confess--I only knew about Pandora because my daughter in college emailed me about it.

Anonymous said...

I like Pandora a lot! It does some groupings well, but Not others. So I did a Delbert McClinton station/grouping and it found other similar ones. I did a Christmas song grouping, and all the others that it added were Christmas songs, but when you looked at the reasons they were playing this type of music, it never mentioned Christmas (kind of odd). However, when I tried to have it find other Amy Winehouse aka Rehab, it just didn't find anything (except more Amy Winehouse songs), it didn't introduce any new artists that fit the bill.
And as for Jim Scott, one of my favorite artists (concert is this Friday in Columbia!), it hadn't heard of him, alas...

Anonymous said...

Pandora definately seems easier than some other online "make your own playlist" sites. I also like that it doesn't require anything downloaded to your computer like some other sites do.

Anonymous said...

I was introduced to Pandora through Maria when we were working in Childrens one night. Every time I go up there they're jamming out!! I'm feeling pretty good that I've already got an account there and don't have to do anything for this assignment. WOO HOO I rock!

Eric said...

Like most the other posters here, I've been addicted to Pandora for several months now. It's much more specific than genre channels, and I can't stop using unknown bands it comes up with to start new stations. It's musical genetics! That is, as long as your artist is one of those covered by Pandora's label agreements.

My girls are addicted, too. As a matter of fact, my youngest uses it to built CD wish lists.

So, how does a library use this? At the very least, it's a great way for selectors to expand their grasp of what is available. They are able to offer CDs from artists similar to those the patrons enjoy most. As a bonus, there are even reviews for a majority of the artists and albums.

Anonymous said...

It's great to hear that librarians are loving Pandora! I myself left a library gig to work at Pandora.

I can see how headphones + pandora may be necessary in a library, at times, since you can't exactly crank the speaker volume up to "10." ;)

Francesca: Feel free to tell Jim Scott to send us a CD, and we'll take a listen. Any time you find we don't have artists in our collection you think we should have, feel free to email suggest-music at pandora dot com.

Here's a couple tips that might help you tune your stations up a bit:

- Entering a song to create a station is often better than entering an artist. This is because sometimes artists have broad repertoires. This can lead to some eclectic results.

- Add multiple songs or artists to a station by clicking the triangle next to the station name and selecting "Add more music to this station".

- Consider only giving a thumbs up to a song when you like (almost) every aspect of a song, because each thumbs up will add more songs to your station, perhaps in a range that is wider than you had hoped.

- Make sure you thumbs down the songs you don’t like, so we never play them again on that station!

- To ban an artist from a station, just give two songs by that artist thumbs downs. Keep in mind, this is station-specific; it will only affect the station you’re currently listening to.

Enjoy the music!

Lucia, MLIS
Pandora

sexybeast said...

At first, I was afraid to open Pandora's box of goodies but after I dove in, I really enjoy the application. Occasionally, it is off a bit but for the most part it does a good job.

Unknown said...

I like Pandora from the couple times I've played it. On my most recent test run it hit the nail on the head - it went from my first entry of Everclear, to Sum41, to Offspring, to Blink182. I'm sure it will choose some songs I don't know or like, but that is going to happen. Pandora is a good option to the other music sites I use.

Anonymous said...

Okay, I have been using Pandora since the end of last year only because the smart and talented people in the children's department (specifically Maria and Vicki)told me about it. I love it so much I don't use my XM radio account at all when I'm at work----only Pandora. We still have XM for the cars, but Pandora makes my work day at the computer so much sweeter. Thank you Pandora people!

Anonymous said...

I really like Pandora. Like someone else said, with this you don't have anything to download to your computer. It's great.

justme said...

This is really great! There are some nites when the quiet gets to be to much and I'd like some music and this will do the trick.

Anonymous said...

I've only been playing with this for a about half an hour, but so far Pandora has picked all the songs and/or artists I enjoy listening to. This will help on those long quiet nights at the library. Very cool!

betterlate said...

This is great! Never heard of it before!

Anonymous said...

I was introduced to Pandora back in January and I love it! It's so much fun to compose your own stations with different music. There are so many of my favorite groups on here and more recent ones than I anticipated finding. I was browsing through the lessons to see what there was and just thought I'd stop on this one.

Anonymous said...

I do like that Pandora attempts to offer similar artists or music styles for the stations you create. Also allowing you to bookmark a song or artist.
I didn't know I could add it to my facebook page before today, but now that I do, I will.

Anonymous said...

I'm listening to Pandora right now! It's still having some trouble figuring me out, methinks. My music tastes are a tad unpredictable.

Anonymous said...

I loooove Pandora. The hints in the comments from lucia @ pandora were very helpful. I appreciate that you only have to input a few songs or artists and it takes off from there for you. I also like that you can have different channels for your different moods. My only beef is that you can't ask for a specific song.

Anonymous said...

Glad to know about this. Hope to experiment with it at home. Given my eclectic musical tastes, it will be interesting to see what Pandora recommends.

Anonymous said...

I have had Pandora for a year or so, and I love it. I just love that I only have to think of one singer and and then the site shows me other singers that are similar.