Pandora is driving me nuts: I list that I like Bob Dylan, Neil Young... and that seems to be ALL

[Flaxbee]

they offer me. I've listed many other artists, but I get a Dylan or Young song seems like every 5th song...

Anyone know how to get a better mix? Or is Pandora just not worth it?

[Archae]

1. Considering that it's free...

But yes, they do repeat a lot on the channels I have.

[Flaxbee]

2. well, true - if it's free, it's 'worth it'

But I just turned them off -- didn't want to hear ANOTHER Dylan song. I want some variety, dammit!

[Archae]

4. The channel I have with the most variety...

Beatles.

[Lionessa]

6. You're right; better to give up than use the tools provided.

Your OP might give the impression that Pandora sucks, it doesn't if you take a few minutes to read and use tools provided.

[Flaxbee]

9. I have read through the site, and have

listed a HUGE variety of artists, and have several stations.

But it still seems to default to Dylan and Young much more frequently than I'd like. Where's the Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Talking Heads, CCR, Beach Boys, BBKing, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Queen etc. that I've said I want?

It's frustrating. I like Pandora, but they need to improve their algorithm or whatever it is they use to serve up the artists.

And on my Pandora classical station they'll put up some lite interpretive shit that I've NEVER said I wanted or liked.

[Generic Brad]

3. Try some Wallflowers or Tom Petty

You never know.

[Flaxbee]

10. Have Tom Petty listed.

Rarely hear him.

Oh wait! Let's just play another Dylan song!

Never hear Talking Heads, either, even though they're on my list.



I'm not going to quit using it, but it just irritates me.

[Lionessa]

5. I've only recently re-visited, but it doesn have a click in the

upper left in the stations box area just under the station you're listening to to "add variety". I'd suggest that, unless that's too easy.

[kentauros]

7. I'd love to have a channel that's ALL Bill Nelson

but it's usually only about 20% Nelson and the rest a mix of "similar artists". Maybe you get just those two because they're so popular. Although Nelson's discography is quite impressive

[MH1]

8. I use Pandora and get LOTS of variety

but then I "like" almost every song that they play that I actually do like. And I started with an eclectic mix. My only problem is that I really should set up some different stations, because I currently everything I like is on one station, and they'll play a bunch on one genre at a time, which is fine, but if I set up different stations I can pick the genre I want for my mood. I mainly use it to listen to at work when I need to shut out ambient noise so I can get my work done, and it works great for me.

[Frank Cannon]

15. Pandora works well for me, too.

And I do exactly what you suggest: set up a whole bunch of different stations with a wide range of "artist seeds" and then either upvote or downvote songs as I see fit.

It took a little while, but eventually I stopped hearing "Evil Woman" every two hours and now hear mostly good stuff from bands I never knew about.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

11. Pandora SUCKS. Go with LastFM.

I have an entire mix CD that I made of progressive rock from bands I'd never HEARD of before discovering them on LastFM.

You might also like Grooveshark. You can play entire albums by a band/artist there.

I played around with Pandora for a bit. Thought its scope was too narrow, hated it. Haven't used it in about two years.

[Flaxbee]

12. thanks - I'll check them both out.

[ButterflyBlood]

13. Yep, I love last.fm

Also love the Recommendations/Neighborhood radio distinction.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

14. In some cases, I enjoyed their recommendation BETTER than the artist I selected to start

Seriously, they go deep. If people are looking to discover new music based on what they like, Last is the place. Pandora has the technology but not the artists.

[CBGLuthier]

16. Quick Mix seems to suck but otherwise it is great

I have a lot of different channels in different genres. If I do use the quick mix function it seems to pull mainly from the first group. But within each individual channel I get very good results.

I do not actually use Pandora's website but instead the Roku interface but that should not matter.