I’m sure many of you have heard of Pandora Radio. Me, primarily because I tend to date men younger than my age group! lol Or I date internet junkies, like me. In any case, I’ve heard it mentioned several times. But when my fave FWB sent me a link that our fave band was on Pandora, I thought I’d give it a try.
According to those I’ve talked to, Pandora lets you create your own radio station by matching your music tastes from the bands/ artists you chose, playing similar sounds from other artists you may not have chosen. Like putting in all your CD’s and hitting the “random” button on your player. Except that some ghost has added considerably more to your collection!
Oh, but its soo much more! You get to “vote” on the random songs Pandora plays. A thumbs up will encourage that song and more songs like it to play on your personal station. A thumbs down will get you an apology as Pandora immediately dumps that song off your list. I can almost see the vinyl fly out of the room!
And as each song plays you can pop up the lyrics if you want. And apparently there is an option to purchase the music. I think. I tend to skitter away from ANY buttons with the word “buy” on them!
Alas there were commercials but you can “upgrade” for a fee to a non-commercial version. Maybe. I don’t know. For now I can suffer through a 10 second commercial. Of course the upgrade is only $36.00 for a year, which averages out to $3 a month, but still….
And there are limitations. Very interesting limitations. If you go onto the site. www.pandora.com I suggest you immediately read the help section, which, very considerately, opens a separate window so you can still vote on your music. What Pandora WON’T do is play your favorite song on demand, or play it over and over again. It’s there to provide you with a multitude of songs, a variety. The artist you’ve chosen or added as variety will only play 4 songs from that artist. The rest, other artists. So in a way you really are expanding your musical tastes.
And it’ll only let you listen for free for 40 hours a month. So if you fall in love and find you’re listening to it more and more, yes, you’ll have to pay. Although there is the option of paying for unlimited listening for the rest of that month if you run out… for 99 cents. Oooo.. dare I spare it!
Playing Pandora music is fun, but it’s (again!) like a job. I must listen carefully to a new song and decide if I like it enough to thumbs up or thumbs down it. Or maybe see what happens when I ignore it. I like the option of considering a new song or a new band.
Cheaper than buying their CD if you’re unsure. But it’ll never replace iTunes when you ARE sure! And its not as good as listening to 98.7 from my laptop when I’m craving all my favorites! But I highly recommend giving it a try.