Talk:Pandora (service)/Archive 1

This is an archive of past discussions about Pandora (service). Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Archive 1

Implementation details

Note that the pandora client is a java application, not flash. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.6.139.11 (talk • contribs) 10:37, 6 June 2006 (See diff)

Are you sure? I have Flash installed, but not Java, and Pandora works fine for me. --maru (talk) contribs 20:13, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, Pandora uses a Flash Player.Jimcripps 02:56, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

That is not correct. Pandora uses Flash. The web site even details what you need to do it have it run. Also a quick look at the page source shows that it is a flash file. Mperry 20:35, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

Zzzz

where is the Zzzz button that is described on the wikipedia page? I have never seen it. I only see a thumbs down, menu arrow, and thumbs up when I put my cursor over the album art.

Under "Guide Us" Burnedthru 23:27, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Is it safe?

Is Pandora safe? I've been using it for over a week, and nothing's happened. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.188.172.165 (talk • contribs)

I've never had any problems using Pandora/having it played in my browser.Jimcripps 04:06, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

I have been using it for several months. It is as heavy as any other music player. I do most of my web browsing in firefox, so I open pandora.com with internet explorer. I can never blame pandora for crashing my comp (It's usually the fault of some IDE or development software I'm using from some OEM). Eek I forgot to to sign Mathiastck 23:35, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

I have used Pandora for countless hours and have never had a stability or security issue with it. 12.177.80.3 (talk) 04:01, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Musical Aspects List

I'm gonna add a list of the parameters, or whatever you wanna call them, that Pandora uses to match and categorize music but I obviously don't know all of them so feel free to add to the list.-- Mertens21 ^Talk 20:09, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure if that's a good idea. According to pandora.com, there are over 400 of those thingies, which would make the article big and ugly. It would also be not that easy to spot bogus entries, making the list prone to vandalism. That being said, I would really love to have such a list, I'm just not sure if this is the right place for it. --Conti|✉ 20:43, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

I concur that this is not the right place for such a list, even though I would be interested in the information as well. The only redemption I can imagine for the list (as a separate page) is if it links to explanations throughout the Pedia of what the musical terms actually mean. (I'm still trying to work out "acoustic sonority".) Mana Gement 23:14, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

Sonority is sound. The word is usually used when talking about sound qualities. Acoustic sonority means that the quality of the sound is predominately acoustic. --Mperry 23:31, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

Why? How will adding that huge list help to improve this article? Mperry 00:02, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

I added a lot of new entries based off of what I was listening to this morning. The list is already too long so if we want to keep this it might be wise to move it to its own page in the near future. --Mperry 22:59, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

ive roughly made them alpha order, and added some, spose its just a bit of fun to add, until it gets a little too long —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.237.5.13 (talk • contribs)

Yeah, it's kind of interesting, IMO. ugen64 03:01, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

One should make a History section along with the date of start of the Pandora project.

Everything in the title —Preceding unsigned comment added by SamiKaero (talk • contribs) 11:32, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

Availability

Until recently, Pandora's availability was "restricted" by the unverified requirement of a US zip code. Pandora has apparently recently emailed its subscribers mentioning that non-US listeners cannot continue using Pandora.[1] Closet philosopher 18:40, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

OpenPandora

It's basically another wrapper / standalone player that runs around Pandora and adds extra functionality. It doesn't allow the extraction of the songs, so I reckon it could be mentioned and linked to from within the article.

http://openpandora.googlepages.com

(Nbmatt 21:30, 10 December 2006 (UTC))

Classification of songs?

One thing I'm not clear on; Pandora seems to assign certain tags to each song (such as "hard rock roots" or "heavy vamping"). Is this analysis done by a person or an algorithm? --Starwed 14:29, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

It's all done in person, see for example this blog entry. --Conti|✉ 16:36, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Related sites

Content editors, if you wish to add..

http://pandorastations.crispynews.com (I'm the designer/admin) seems to be the best bet going for sharing your sites.

Also.. see my blog post http://pandorastations.blogspot.com/2006/10/pandora-round-up.html for a pretty complete round up on all the tips/tricks/hacks/wrappers out there today.

Thanks! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.136.232.56 (talk) 04:27, 17 December 2006 (UTC).

Site redesign

Just thought I'd give you Wiki folks a heads up - Pandora's just updated their site. It looks like they've got some sort of mobile and home system planned... might want to take a look and, if you can write worth beans, add a little bit :) 71.111.17.223 04:11, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

Facebook App

Sioux city — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.4.103.165 (talk) 04:46, 5 August 2012 (UTC)

There's now a Facebook App available, so if anyone has the time to update the article please do :). Cheers, Fatnickc 17:41, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

-I added it under 'Other Features', along with info about their podcast series I mentioned.

Canada

In Vancouver, BC, using Shaw internet, Pandora.com has suddenly started working again in the past month or two. Is this specific to my ISP or is all of Canada unblocked now? Are there any Internet references corroborating this? Queerwiki (talk) 18:59, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Pandora Podcast

This article should mention the site's other section, a musicology show: http://blog.pandora.com/podcast/ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nnnudibranch (talk • contribs) 21:09, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

-Added this in along with an "Other Features" section intended to put information about official things developed on pandora, such as the podcast and the facebook application. Nnnudibranch (talk) 00:59, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

UK Copyright issues

I removed the letter that was posted on this article and replaced it with a reference. If it's felt necessary to have this in the article, it needs to be better formatted. I almost mistook it for vandalism.(Darthveda (talk) 16:22, 8 January 2008 (UTC))

Length of song restrictions

I think Pandora also has song length restrictions - for example, I have a Pink Floyd station, which tends to play long Floyd songs and they often get cut off at the end. I've noticed this on a bunch of longer songs, such as Free Bird or Stairway to Heaven. Smooth0707 (talk) 20:56, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Don't worry, buddy. There's no length restriction... It's just that Pink Floyd sucks and pandora really didn't feel like streaming the songs in their entirety.

I have noticed Pandora cutting off songs as well. I don't the songs well enough to know how long they normally are but I think your point deserves addition to the page.--Eli H 03:36, 11 November 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Squeekyzebra (talk • contribs)

My (progressive rock-oriented) stations regularly play songs a lot longer than Free Bird in their entirety - sometimes over 20 minutes. 66.60.238.84 (talk) 00:59, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Pandora audio quality / compression

On the 8th of april 2008 Pandora Radio changed from 128kb/s MP3 audio to 64kb/s MP42 AAC audio compression. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.62.111.38 (talk) 12:25, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

Pandora's Jar

Pandora's Jar has been non-function for some time now. Should that info be removed? 12:05, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

No, it's still working last I saw. I think the link on the artical is a poor one, as it takes you to a general forum. The link inside of that forum that actually has Pandora's Jar info is this one: http://hak5.org/forums/index.php?showforum=21 Ward99 (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 16:27, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

StationRipper

Since last week, I've been using StationRipper like I used to use Pandora's Jar - should that be added? The ref'd page doesn't talk about that, but the product page does http://www.stationripper.com/Pandora.htm 12:10, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

When'd it start to do that? I agree that it should be added, if it does in fact download pandora songs. Ward99 (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 16:23, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

That'd be illegal though, if it did indeed download songs off of Pandora. Mr. Old-Skool 23:37, 30 July 2008

I'd think this would be legal under the fair use statue (is TiVo legal? If so, then in what way is this not?) As far as I know, a app of this type and its legality has not been tested as of yet, in the US. I would think it should be added, with a note about the legal questions surrounding this. If not, then Pandora's JAR should be removed (I would think the first...) And I would think the stationripper page should be updated (does not appear to have been, about this)

The stationripper product violates the digital copyright act. (72.48.80.185 (talk) 22:11, 29 December 2008 (UTC))

See above comment.

I updated the software's (stationripper) main page. I included a ref to the EFF brief to the FTC that relates to some of the above legal discusion.

Here's a quote of the text that talks about this:

There is also nothing in the DPRA or DMCA to suggest that Congress meant to change the copyright law applicable to noncommercial home recording. Such recording implicates the reproduction right, which the DPRA left unchanged, not the digital public performance right in sound recordings.

Moreover, the DMCAs provisions relating to webcasting actually reinforce the clear, long-standing congressional antipathy to design mandates in copyright policy-making, as well as congressional acceptance of noncommercial home recording. So, while Congress took steps to regulate the playlists of noninteractive webcasters,30 it did not impose any design mandate on devices that might record those webcasts. Today, there is a wide array of lawful software products that enable the recording (and subsequent automated disaggretation) of webcast content.31 Similarly, while Congress forbade such webcasters from actively encouraging home recording, it did not require webcasters to make any effort to discourage or impair home recording.

It goes on to specifial mention stationripper as a legit use of this type of software.

I honestly don't know if it's legal or not. It seems the tivo argument is somewhat on target - I sure hope tivo is legal, as I'd hate to see that go away - and I don't see a difference between tivo and this type of software.

I would recommend that stationripper gets added, and possibly include the legal arguments for this (including Pandora's JAR and any other software the records panodra)

Here's a link to the EFF/FTC PDF: [http://w2.eff.org/IP/digitalradio/EFF-BC_DAB_reply.pdf —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.155.170.37 (talk) 23:06, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

Flash Cookies

I think that flash cookies might be an interesting addition to the pandora entry. I always wondered how pandora never needed me to login, even after I had cleared all my cookies. After some research it turns out that they use "flash cookies" a much larger piece of data stored in your flashplayer plugin folder. I'm not really sure where this fits, but I think it's interesting. Eli H 03:39, 11 November 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Squeekyzebra (talk • contribs)

MSN

This sentence is hard to understand: "MSN Radio used Pandora up until June 18, 2008, which was launched two years before." According to the reference, MSN originally offered Pandora and then stopped and no longer has a music service. Could somebody familiar with MSN fix the sentence and maybe expand it to a paragraph? Sluggoster (talk) 07:22, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

"I'm Still Listening"

Someone should mention in the Limitations that Pandora's free version will only play for one hour before it stops and requires the user to confirm that they are still listening. Joylovessonshine (talk) 19:47, 2 July 2009 (UTC)

In the Spring of 2013 Pandora One, the paid version, reduced its uninterrupted play to three (3) hours from five (5) hours before verification of listener presence. — Preceding unsigned comment added by JohnG45 (talk • contribs) 17:02, 29 June 2013 (UTC)

On the Deletion of All the Pandora Wrappers

Instead of deleting all of the wrappers would it not be better to keep notable ones? The wrapper list can be seen at the the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pandora_(music_service)&oldid=299368868 Aaron Myles Landwehr (talk) 22:51, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

Revise 'Limitations'?

" The site explains that some of these limitations are set by Pandora's licensor. Some of these limits can be avoided by creating a second account. Pandora serves users in the United States. ... 40 hours of free listening per month. Unlimited for the rest of the month for $0.99. The Vista sidebar gadget does not affect the listening limit. Rewind or repeat is not possible."

I think the whole Limitations section needs to be revised for obvious reasons —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.171.160.202 (talk) 06:12, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

iPhone screenshot?

I think the iPhone screenshot needs to be replaced to show an actual station playing, not just a search result (even if it is Wikipedia ^_^) 69.171.160.202 (talk) 06:18, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

I agree--the screenshot presented looks more like a shot for an article about iOS APIs (search and button placement) than any exemplification of what Pandora is.152.119.255.250 (talk) 16:54, 15 June 2011 (UTC)

'Skips' math

'six skips were allowed per hour (72 skips in 24 hours)'. um, where i went to school, 24x6 equalled 144. one or the other is wrong, or there's another,unexplained, factor. clarification is in order. Toyokuni3 (talk) 18:32, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

I dont know exactly how it works, but it might be that in one hour you can only do 6 skips, but if you listen to the station for 24 hours, you are only allowed 72 total. so you cant skip 6 times per hour for the entire day.--Billy Nair (talk) 00:22, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

Similar organizations = Zune.

I am adding Zune to the list. The software has similar features to the other websites/programs mentined. Plus, it also has streaming to Zune Devices. Really no reason not to add it in my own opinion. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mackenziepricee (talk • contribs) 03:02, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

Music Genome Project

The "Music Genome Project" is nothing more than a marketing term trying to trick people into thinking some proprietary work is some sort of actual scientific project. It's a trademarked term, and saying that Pandora is the "custodian of the Music Genome Project" is useless and misleading. It's NOT NOTEWORTHY. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nishantman (talk • contribs) 02:06, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Comments on the "Music Genome Project" and Flash "Cookies"

1. The "Music Genome Project" is a program that analyzes music's components (genomes) and matches Pandora users' tastes by matching the components they prefer to songs w/ similar components/genomes. It's certainly proprietary and certainly created as much w/ the owners' profits in mind, as w/ users musical enjoyment. 2. Pandora requires that users allow universal third party flash content, known as a flash cookie as a default setting. This allows tracking users patterns via their flash content. IMLTHO this is bull dookie, and with regret, I've decided not to use Pandora. Tapered (talk) 09:16, 1 January 2011 (UTC)

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Article name

Shouldn't this article be named Pandora Media, which is the company name, rather than Pandora Radio, which is the name of its main service? Jeff Song (talk) 21:51, 19 December 2011 (UTC)

Content of advertisements

Pandora keeps showing offensive anti-gay advertisements. Is there a way to influence the ad content or is the only way out to get the paid version (I certainly do not want to lend my financial support to an organization that is communicating these kinds of messages)? I emailed Pandora a while ago and got no response. Should there be some warning in this Wikipedia article about Pandora's apparent affiliation with a far-right socially conservative agenda? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.62.37.185 (talk) 17:13, 19 March 2012 (UTC)

DMCA and 'Limitations'

I am puzzled by the wording of the first sentence in the section on 'Limitations', which starts 'To comply with the requirements and protections offered by the DMCA...' I do not see what the DMCA, a piece of United States federal legislation, has to do with the availability of Pandora in other countries. So far as I'm aware, there is nothing in the DMCA to prevent Pandora operating outside the USA, and indeed, according to the article itself, it does operate in Australia and New Zealand. Of course, if Pandora wants to provide a service in other countries, it would need to comply with copyright and royalties requirements in those countries, and the DMCA would not protect it. If that is what the sentence is supposed to mean, it should be clarified.109.158.41.186 (talk) 12:50, 6 November 2012 (UTC)

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

I've deactivated the template as the page is not protected, and you haven't proposed a specific edit. Edit requests are not designed to answer questions. You may have better luck at the WP:REFDESK. Monty ₈₄₅ 15:47, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

Pandora does indeed work on Opera

As I'm typing this, I'm using the Pandora tuner in a different tab of Opera... so I'm not sure if that's from an older version of Opera, but it certainly works on Opera browsers. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.21.228.234 (talk) 18:37, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

I use Opera 12.17 for serious browsing but Opera 30 for heavy sites, including video and audio. Pandora does work with Opera 30. I would not try it with Opera 12.17 because it would be likely to overload it and crash it.

Note, however, that Opera 12.17 is the last Opera version that uses a true Opera engine. All later versions are based on Chrome. In particular, Opera 30 is a version of Chrome. ---Dagme (talk) 01:12, 8 August 2015 (UTC)

Neutral point of view

Regarding the sentence:

"Yet even with all of its competition, Pandora's Promoted Stations rely on its core Music Genome Project. Overall, the Music Genome Project of more than 450 attributes assigned to each song with a human-curated database of recorded music gives a big edge over competitors like Spotify and Beats Music."

I propose that "gives a big edge over competitors" could be reworded to "is used as a key point of difference from competitors" to maintain neutrality.

--163.189.7.40 (talk) 05:29, 28 September 2015 (UTC)

I think that the organization of this article could be better specifically in the competition part

Also i think that maybe more information should be implemented it has an almost Darwinian approach to the integrated content

Furthermore the delineation of pandora versus its competitors could be slightly more defined.

Also I think maybe some more insider knowledge on pandora might be useful, a different mentality would freshen up the stale feel of this article.

I think that overall its a great article with a lot of great information with minimal organization. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2605:E000:5B00:A300:BCBE:A0F1:5BEF:2692 (talk) 05:25, 9 October 2015 (UTC)

Pandora without subscription

I heard Pandora at the homes of friends and liked the sound. They recommended it to me, saying that I should try to get a free subscription.

I went to the site and was invited to choose an artist or genre. I entered "Jazz" and it immediately started playing an excellent selection of jazz tunes. I have not subscribed.

It seems to me that this article is way off base in only discussing subscription service. I don't understand why there is no mention of access without subscription. ---Dagme (talk) 01:19, 8 August 2015 (UTC)

I downloaded the app. Music is good but I can't find a way to exit the app. I had to turn my phone off. Do you know anything about this? Lswallow900 (talk) 03:53, 13 February 2017 (UTC)

SiriusXM stake

For those out of the blue, after rumors that SiriusXM was going to buy Pandora, they announced today that they were going to invest $480 million into Pandora by buying a 19% stake in the company. Should we update the page to reflect that? --MysteryMii215 (talk) 17:28, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

Listening from outside the US

I'm listening from Romania, and everything works ok. It appears the site isn't restricted to the US anymore? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.123.97.115 (talk) 12:30, 22 September 2011 (UTC)

I listen every day in Argentina, but I use a VPN to trick Pandora into thinking I'm in the USA. I can usually turn the VPN off, and it will continue without problems. I used to have to leave the VPN turned on. 168.232.250.231 (talk) 13:54, 2 December 2017 (UTC)

Xmas music mostly flamenco guitar

I have set my pandora to a christmas music station. However, about 2/3 of music played is flamenco guitar and some other stuff that I would like to listen to but I x them so my wife can listen to christmas. I also have about 15 stations to shuffle through. Most of them are never played though I have selected shuffle. Now I have only christmas selected, not shuffle. Most played is flamenco guitar. Ccresap (talk) 04:23, 18 December 2018 (UTC)

The Beatles

I remember for several years Pandora was unable to have Beatles music. The Mo-Ja'al (talk) 16:39, 16 August 2019 (UTC)