I am extremely confused by Pandora.
I try to wrap my mind about how Pandora works. You put in an
artist or genre and it generates a playlist based on this choice. I guess this
would be good for if you want music, but don’t want to spend a couple minutes
picking out what you want to hear. I get it; sometimes just background noise is
nice. But what kills me is that there’s no way to listen to a particular song. You
really want to hear “let it be” by the Beatles? Well f*** you, Pandora has other
plans. Let’s listen to some Monkeys, Beach boys, and about ten other Beatles
songs before we get to that one. Not to mention the stupid skip system. It only
gives you so many before you’re forced to listen to “who let the dogs out”
because you kind of didn’t like the few songs before it. Oh, and the audio ads
that disrupt your groove session to sell you auto insurance.
See, I understand how this website works. I’m just confused
why so many people use it! In the land where everything is customizable, the
country where you can “have it your way” and venerate “the power of choice",
I cannot believe people would want such a confounding service. Pandora gives
you very little interaction with your listening experience and it has the gall
to yank away privileges at arbitrary times. Yet people still plug into Pandora and
relinquish their musical choice. Maybe it bugs me because I’ve known several
people dissatisfied with Pandora and yet they still use it because it’s the site
they’re most comfortable with.
Because just by one Google search, I have found music sites
that are infinitely better than Pandora. Seriously, “music site”, and you get
at least four hits that list the best free websites for music online.
Grooveshark is what I use whenever I want my music fix. You can search for your
own favorite songs, and they have a huge selection of music. Whether you
want old (yes) or new (not so much) or international music (at least Jpop), they
have a good selection of it. You can create separate playlists for when you
want to pump up and dance or calm down. And don’t want to think about your
music selection? Grooveshark has the same feature as Pandora. Just plug in some
songs you like and it will make selections for you based on what’s in
your cue. Unlimited skips, and the only ads are visual ones on the margins of
the screen. I admit there are some
downsides. It’s a little disorganized, has some dead links so the song you
selected doesn’t play, and has a mediocre search system. But at least it HAS a
search system! Grooveshark is, in my humble opinion, WAY better than Pandora.
The thing I learned about today is what my friend showed me
on her phone. Songza is a website that creates playlists for you based on your
activity or your mood. I think this is absolutely brilliant! If I want to
dance, I hit the dance playlist and select from three different types of
playlists that are popular right now. I like it because this makes sure I get
the same type of song. Even if I type in oldies rock on one of my automatic
playlist sites, I might get some slow ballad in between my Aha and Billy Joel.
I would definitely prefer using a function like this rather than a genre
playlist. It just seems more convenient and personable to me. Not only that,
but going through the playlists I’m finding genres I haven’t hear of yet, like
folk metal. I just learned about it today (obviously) so I’ll have to play
around with it a bit more before I decide whether I like it more than
Grooveshark.
So, if you want to listen to some tunes online, Pandora is definitely
not the best site to go to. I really suggest that people go try out some
different ones rather than just relying on the one they know the best. I’m
going to continue pumping my Mika playlist on Grooveshark and maybe find some
nice oldies or acoustic guitar songs on Songza.
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