My Thoughts on Playlist and Pandora

9:19 am Uncategorized

So I’ve gone back and forth with Playlist.com and Pandora.com for a while, and I can’t really in the end decide which one I like the best.  Pandora has it’s uses for playing things at random, Playlist let’s you choose the songs you want to play.  The only problem is that sometimes I get sick of the songs I have on my list, and don’t want to take the time to go find new songs to add!

I’ll probably go back and forth for a while, but here’s something that I’ve noticed about Pandora: it seems to get stuck in a repeat loop sometimes.  What I mean is that I sometimes go along rating songs and then it just plays the same songs that I’ve rated, nothing new.  I’ve also experimented with not rating anything at all, but it has the same problem there as well.  Isn’t the point of Pandora to give you new music to discover?

Have you used either or both of these services?  If you haven’t, you should check them out sometime.  They’re both great in their own right because you don’t have to store any music on your computer, just stream it online.

If you have used either one I’d love to hear your thoughts.  Which do you like better and why?

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Comments

  1. February 27th, 2009 | 10:33 am

    I’ve only used pandora and only on my ipod. I love the service though! It gives me ideas for new songs that I probably would never have heard before because the regular radio only plays what they want you to hear. I haven’t had the issue of it repeating songs though, but I suppose if you have a very fine taste, you may see some repeats.

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  2. February 27th, 2009 | 11:52 am

    great blog

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  3. February 27th, 2009 | 3:45 pm

    McKinley Marketing Partners is an outstanding marketing staffing firm with offices in Washington, DC, Dallas and NYC.

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  4. Em
    February 27th, 2009 | 5:32 pm

    I tend to use pandora more just because it’s a lazy way to listen to music. I don’t have to create play lists or anything, i just click a few buttons and music plays all by itself. i agree that some stations tend to get stuck on repeat though. I think if you don’t rate them they seem to give you a bigger variety as opposed to playing the “thumbs up” songs for you all the time.

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  5. February 27th, 2009 | 6:50 pm

    I absolutely love pandora. It’s constantly streaming on my computer and iphone

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  6. February 28th, 2009 | 4:54 am

    I will always use pandora, basicly becasue I always have and always will. I fear change!!

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  7. March 1st, 2009 | 2:42 pm

    I find that on Pandora if you not only thumbs up and down the songs, but manually enter in other songs and artists it will expand and not repeat so many songs.

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  8. March 2nd, 2009 | 6:09 am

    I’ve never used either of these services, I usually plug in my Zune and put it on random. Seems to work pretty good, don’t get the same songs all the time and its quick and easy. I usually use music match on my pc, but I will give these a try when I get a chance.

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  9. March 2nd, 2009 | 9:30 am

    I really like pandora, I have it on my iphone and then I always have new music and I don’t have to waste space with music, the only problem that I have with Pandora is that you can not go to other apps on the phone while using Pandora - which is kind of annoying to have to go out of Pandora to see where I am on the GPS. If they would change that Pandora would be perfect. I have never noticed a repeat problem.

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  10. March 3rd, 2009 | 2:43 am

    I gave up on Pandora sometime ago now - none of the tracks it selected as being similar to my tastes ever seemed to come close

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  11. March 3rd, 2009 | 12:57 pm

    I am so comfy already with Pandora. A software progress is enough, I’m not planning on switching such a great software that streams great both in my iPod and PC.

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  12. March 4th, 2009 | 12:50 am

    I should try this one. Thanks for making very informative blogs.

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  13. March 4th, 2009 | 1:29 am

    The issue for is how to rate songs. Like on iTunes, I get caught up in trying to decide whether I think a song deserves 3 stars or 4 stars. What’s the difference? I wrestle with the idea for a few minutes and then give up ratings and just let it play randomly. (Which would be encouraged by this blog :)

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  14. March 4th, 2009 | 4:23 pm

    I just love pandora - it’s constantly streaming on my computer or iphone. I’ve been using it since it first came out. I have never experienced a “repeat” problem

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  15. March 5th, 2009 | 7:22 am

    Never tried. Thanks for letting me know about it

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  16. March 5th, 2009 | 12:54 pm

    Oh ya. I almost forgot about Pandora. Thanks for reminding me. I should still have an account.

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  17. March 5th, 2009 | 3:22 pm

    agree

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  18. March 5th, 2009 | 3:59 pm

    Playlist is great! I’ve never used Pandora, so I’ll have to check it out, but I don’t even use Playlist for MySpace or anything - just go to the site and put together lists that I listen to while I’m at work. It’s great, I don’t know how they’re still managing to get away with providing so much copyrighted music… but I don’t mind at all.

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  19. March 6th, 2009 | 5:17 am

    Even I’ve never used Pandora, but it sounds great. so I’ll have to look into this.

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  20. March 6th, 2009 | 12:17 pm

    This is neat, I have tried the one program and I do like it, give verity to my music. Never have tried Pandora so I am going to try it and see if it works better. Great post.

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  21. March 6th, 2009 | 2:40 pm

    It is good to don’t have to load your computer with mp3’s but sometimes the playlists of this kind of sites can be a little redundant.

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  22. March 7th, 2009 | 12:05 am

    I think Last.fm kinda kicks Pandora right now…especially due to the irrelevance of some of Pandora’s songs…

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  23. March 8th, 2009 | 8:02 am

    got pandora on my ipod and i just love it!

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  24. March 8th, 2009 | 11:43 am

    Pandora is a great service, but wish it wasnt only in the USA.

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  25. March 9th, 2009 | 1:17 am

    If you have time last.fm is great for discovering new music. Of course it takes some time to research new bands and find their songs but it may be worth it - you can find some amazing music.

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  26. March 9th, 2009 | 7:19 am

    I must admit that didn’t use those services at all and if im in the mood of randomness i just swich “shufle” in my Media Player :)

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  27. March 9th, 2009 | 6:15 pm

    you have just introduced me into some cool stuff, I’m on the net 24hours a day ;) and I never heard of something like that before. I wonder how legal this is…

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  28. March 9th, 2009 | 10:03 pm

    I have used pandora and I feel that they need to make lot of improvements in it

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  29. March 9th, 2009 | 10:33 pm

    i have an iphone and i downloaded pandora. it’s a pretty slick little deal. all your favorite music being built upon. i don’t even think i paid for it. the idea of radio is really improving. buy sirius.

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  30. March 9th, 2009 | 11:33 pm

    WOW THIS WOULD BE REALLY GREAT…I HAVE USED TO USE EITHER OF THEM…THANK FOR SHARING THIS…I WILL SURELY TRY THIS…THANX AGAIN.

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  31. March 11th, 2009 | 1:43 pm

    I always use pandora, think that it’s great!

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  32. March 11th, 2009 | 3:01 pm

    This is the age-old (ok more like decade old) question for me. Do I plug in my ipod and listen to songs I know I like? OR do I turn on the radio and listen to random different things? I guess it just depends on my mood :)

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  33. March 11th, 2009 | 9:37 pm

    my answer is always ipod, well… iphone. but i do listen to howard stern the entire time i’m in my room. that introduces me to many different things… not always music…

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  34. March 12th, 2009 | 4:35 pm

    I’m a big fan of pandora, personally!

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  35. March 12th, 2009 | 6:40 pm

    I am a fan of playlist

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  36. March 18th, 2009 | 5:26 pm

    Love Pandora! Never tried playlist but i may have to give it a try.

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  37. March 21st, 2009 | 4:51 pm

    I love Pandora but I am willing to pay $12.95/month for Napster to be able to pick any song I want to listen to. Napster now has a feature much like Pandora that finds music that is similar to what you type in to the player.

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  38. March 21st, 2009 | 5:57 pm

    I have been using Pandora for over 2 yrs now and I really like it. I set up a channel for each type of music I like, and select them as my mood desires. There is a bit of a loop though like you discussed, when this happens, I just change over to another channel. What is also nice is to set up a channel that is totally out of your realm, such as classical, which I listen to often while working on my computer. It will stretch your taste out a little without having to know the songs to select.

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  39. April 1st, 2009 | 12:22 am

    Thanks for telling us about playlist. I only know about Pandora and its ability to infer musical tastes, which is already a pretty nice feature. The learning algorithm can be improved, but I guess that’s what things like the Netflix challenge are trying to do: improve predictive algorithms

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  40. June 12th, 2009 | 10:15 pm

    Pandora is the killer music app and it is the best way to listen radio online

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  41. July 7th, 2009 | 8:42 pm

    I like Pandora when you want to listen to random stuff…which i do. However, i never really checked out playlist. I went to the sight and checked it out but did not stay too long.

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  42. December 24th, 2009 | 7:11 am

    thx for your info:) nice suggestion

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  43. April 1st, 2010 | 2:37 am

    Pandora is great!

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  44. April 12th, 2010 | 11:24 am

    pandora is getting better and bigger. it’s really taken off of late with help from the iphone/ipad.

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  45. May 6th, 2010 | 2:07 am

    pandora is presently gaining more and more popularity among new couples. its a common sense.

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  46. May 6th, 2010 | 11:18 pm

    pandora jewelry is so hot in china presently.

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  47. June 19th, 2010 | 10:10 am

    thx for your good information I am a fan of playlist

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  48. August 17th, 2010 | 3:47 am

    That is right!

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  49. August 25th, 2010 | 2:35 am

    Ja, ja! Das stimt!

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  50. August 27th, 2010 | 6:26 am

    genau!
    rowery jawohl!

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  51. August 30th, 2010 | 7:36 am

    Both are great!

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