I just learned about this site on the Ascend forum and thought you guys here would appreciate it....I really like it!
www.pandora.com

Curtis, that is too cool! This could have awesome potential. Must play with it more.

Thanks for the link!

That is pretty darn cool.

I am glad you guys like it. I wish I could stream it to my Squeezebox though.

What I have done is hooked up my laptop to my audio system. The sound is very acceptable and is better than any radio station. A great way to sample music!

I like it

This is gonna make me hook up my speakers to my computer. My laptop does not make for a good music reproducer.

I use headphones on the PC, if any of you folks like contemporary blues check out Leslie West ... I've never heard of him prior and I really like him. Pandora is a very good way to sample new artist.

I'm using my headphones too, right now it is some Rush

I like this very much,,,,just signed up for the free service with advertising for now. thanks man to cool...

I've got the following Stations setup so far:

Classic Rock
Metal
Jazz/Blues

Don't think I won't be getting that Home Theater PC setup down there faster now. Sending this out to my Denon will be toooooo cool...sounds awesome on my pc speakers. 128kbps is not to bad, glad I have broadband.

I just put on Leslie West, pretty good Rick.

Try out the John Mayer Trio also...not the old 'pop' John Mayer most of us are used to listening to. He's actually a pretty decent guitar player.

I'm loving this, Curtis. I've got a digital feed out to my sound system, and the quality is excellent. If the ads become intrusive, I may have to spend the dough to subscribe. You, finally, may get ME to spend some money. I guess you're getting back at me for the MX700, huh?

I am going to subscribe as well. I want them to stay in business and not get swallowed up by some other company that is going to mess up their product!

This may seriously speed up my plans to put together an HTPC of some sort.....probably something more for music than anythingelse.

I've got a lossless wireless audio link (Airport Express) between my computer and my home theater. I've only been streaming radio stations and my MP3/AAC collection to it until now. This will be a great way to discover new music.

Thanks!

I agree Curtis, my HTPC may have to be completed sooner than planned. Then I can ditch my DVD player. Check out TheaterTek software also, if you have not already, you have full scaling ability and the picture is almost HD for DVD's...

I'll have to check this out tonight...you gave me something to play with in the hotel

I just got an email back from the folks from Pandora......Squeezbox support is on the horizon!!! In fact, demo'd at CES!!!! Sweet!!!!

Cool.........guess I set up the Squeezebox just in time.

Thanks! VERY cool. Great for those of us who listen at work.

This is neat. I started off with Are Friends Electric by Gary Neuman and the Tubeway Army and it knew it. I was a little surprised. The funny thing was when I tried Candy-O by the Cars and it came up with You're All I've Got Tonight by The Cars... still very neat.

I just want to thank Curtis again for finding this website, I am hooked.

It's really fun to mix some totally different artists into the same station and see what it comes up with.

I'm glad you guys are enjoying it.

My CD collection will grow because of this site....and I can't wait for the Squeezebox support.

The page opens for me, but the box that says loading never finishes loading.
Any ideas on what I can do?

Do you have Flash 8 installed?

This is really cool, I'll have to hook up my pc to my ht now.

Wow...I didn't even get that far yet...you can put multiple artists into one station...I thought they had to be separate stations...I've been listening for the past hour or so and signed up, but now things just got more interesting

I added a couple more artists, and seem to be getting better results. I'm finding that I am more interested in seeing what song it will give me next then I am in sitting and listening to the whole song. A snippet is enough to tell me if I like it or not and then I can move on to the next.

And who said our attention spans are getting shorter and shorte and shor

Awesome site, Great find

Don't forget to give each song a thumbs up or thumbs down to further tailor the station to your liking.

Yep, I use the up/down on the actual record label, or click the "Guide Me" to tailor the direction.

Right now I have the following stations setup:

Oldies 50's 60's
Alternative
Country
Jazz/Blues
Metal
Classic Rock

I started by adding some of my favorites from each category by clicking the down arrow on each station, pretty cool...

I take it nobody here likes www.bluebeat.com or what? They have been doing it forever and have everything you could ask for including high bit rates.

Oh great, now my wife is getting into this stuff. She had me create a Country channel, see above. Now she has me creating a "Love Songs" channel....no playing "Sometimes When We Touch" by Dan Hill......

Curtis


Thank YOU!




Peter
Thank you too.
I'm surprised Flash 8 didnt get loaded when I transfered everything from my old iMac.

Where's the classical music? Pandora sucks! Okay, just kidding, but when I'm at the computer I generally make use of this site , which is a compilation of classical stations all over the world(of varying quality, of course)and might be of interest.

bluebeat is a different animal....it does not seem to create playlists on the fly according to your tastes in music.

Huh? BlueBeat let's you listen to a specific genre of music which is exactly what this does but at a lower bit rate.

If I'm missing something here let me know. I input 7 bands and not one of them played due to license agreements. BlueBeat, played them all. Granted my taste is out in left field but the point is still valid.

That's just it...bluebeat is pre-defined. Pandora defines the set based on criteria on the song or artist you give it....it does not necessarily play that particular artist, and the playlist is built on the fly.

Here is what they do:
http://www.pandora.com/mgp.shtml

question, where does the music actually stream from? Just curious.

Curtis, thank you. That's cool. Ditto on other comments. I'm hooked.

JohnK, you crack me up. And thank you for the referral.

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question, where does the music actually stream from? Just curious.

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You mean the location? I don't know.

I wish I had a nice audio setup here in the office.

I played it though my Axioms last night, and I did notice some significant compression artifacts while listening. Less than the average streaming radio station, but worse than any OTA radio station. I'm not sure if I'd pay for the service knowing this, but I'd definitely use it to discover new music.

I have to chime in here and thank Curtis for letting us know about this. I had off from work yesterday a listened all day. I have a feeling this is going to impact my budget and I don't mean paying for the service. I mean buying all this new stuff I'm hearing. On second thought curse you! jk
oz

I have finally signed up for this (the free not pay) and am mostly doing it in the hopes I'll be turned onto new music that fits what I like.
very nice

Their main office is in Oakland CA (sadly they are not hiring IT people right now since I live in SF).

-jr

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I played it though my Axioms last night, and I did notice some significant compression artifacts while listening. Less than the average streaming radio station, but worse than any OTA radio station. I'm not sure if I'd pay for the service knowing this, but I'd definitely use it to discover new music.

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I also hear artifacts....some songs are worse than others, but I will gladly accept them over any FM radio station and accompanying commercials and playlists. For me, I love discovering great new music that suits my tastes.

I agree curtis, many of the songs sound very good.

great find curtis!

Leslie West back in the day was the front man and lead guitar player for a group called Mountain. I saw them a couple of times. Good stuff. I had no idea he was still kicking it out. That's assuming it is the same guy. But then how many Leslie Wests can there be?
oz

Oz I do believe whenever I'm in the mood for some unheard of blues tunes I'm giving you a shout for recommendations. You da man!

Happpy to oblige!
oz

Gotta get that sticky key taken care of.

oz

Sticky key Oz? I don't think I really want to know or even try to visualize that particular picture.

I'll just 'stick' to asking questions regarding new blues tunes ... how's that?

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That's just it...bluebeat is pre-defined. Pandora defines the set based on criteria on the song or artist you give it....it does not necessarily play that particular artist, and the playlist is built on the fly.

Here is what they do:
http://www.pandora.com/mgp.shtml

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Pandora, BlueBeat and all the others that do this are reading tags......thus playing music via the tag information. There is no voo doo or fancy foot work going on here. It's based on the tag information given and not much else.

I understand that someone can get very creative with the genre listed in the tag but no matter how you slice it, it's been pre-selected via one method or another.

Don't get me wrong here, I think this is very cool and has kick ass potential, but in it's current form I don't have a lot of use for it when BlueBeat has a significantly larger library and is broadcasting at a much higher bit rate with no noticeable artifacts.

Your one sick dude. I guess I left myself wide open for that.

oz

I think that is what I am getting at...it isn't just a single genre tag for Pandora...it is many different criteria.

Bluebeat may have a larger library...that is fair...but the one genre tag can itself be many different styles in itself. With Pandora, you have much more control over the type of music in your defined "station".

If you like Bluebeat better...I can't argue with you....kinda like speakers.

I'm not arguing.........there is enough of that in another thread.

I'm just shooting the breeze!

I tried the Bluebeat site and it sucks royal.
















Not really I haven't even tried it. Hey John

Rick,

Give it a go you might like it. It's one of the few internet radio sites I can actually handle the sound of over my HT set-up. I never hear artifacts, I have yet to have a delay or so much as a burp in any of their songs.

It's not for everyone and I really wish they would move away from Microsoft as their player of choice but what they do, they do well.

In reply to

Their main office is in Oakland CA (sadly they are not hiring IT people right now since I live in SF).

I think they are infact looking for someone for their IT Dept., not sure what exact profile, but I remember seeing the information on one of their links. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to look for the link now as I am at work and like most of the fun sites, Pandora is blocked too


Curtis:
Thanks a lot for the website man, it rocks! Yeh, like a few others mentioned, it does not have a very extensive classical selection though. But I think it's just a matter of getting the search parameters right - Was a little funny when a search for 'yo yo ma' turned up a hip-hop artist with a penchant for colorful language!

Once again...I am happy everyone seems to be enjoying the site. I can only take credit for sharing, someone else directed me to it.

I brougth my Sennheiser PX100 headphones to work today.....Sweet!!!

definitely a big thanks for the rec, it's a great site.

I've upgraded my headphones to the Ultimate Ears super.fi 5EB. Bass is definitely pronounced, I can see where others might think too much but I'm OK w/ it. MUCH better soundstaging than my Sony EX71's. I also ordered a pair of Xtrememac FS1's (by Future Sound) so I can have a "headphone off". Should get them soon, I'll post my thoughts.

I heard those Sennheisers were excruciatingly bright. Or are they just accurate?

They actually sound a tad on the warm side to me....which seems to coinside with what I read on some of the headphone forums. They are defiitely warmer than my Ety ER6i's, and more bass too.

I discovered a "limitation" of pandora today while trying to burn through a bunch of tracks to help tune a station to my liking. I just got the following error:

Unfortunately, our music licenses force us to limit the number of times you may skip songs each hour.

I think I skipped 4 or 5, but can't be sure. That seems pretty restrictive.

The FAQ has the explanation, Peter.

Q: Can I skip as many songs as I'd like if I subscribe?

No. Our licenses do not allow unlimited skips per hour. The idea here is that you should not be able to skip ahead to find exactly the song you might be looking for. An unlimited number of skips could effectively provide "track on demand" which is not allowed in a streaming radio product.

I understand it, I just like limits about as much as I like obeying them.

I think there is a way around it by instead of skipping, just select "I don't like it". That seems to let you go to the next song.

The "I don't like it" skips count as regular skips.

You can always press f5 and reload the page if you don't like a song.

Hmmm. There's an idea.

Sometimes I have discovered that it might play the same song twice if you do that, but still, that hardly happens for me. And, when you use up your "don't like it's" it's refining your music tastes anyways from before.

It is cutting out on me tonight, currently listening to Kate McGarry, never heard of her, but it is cutting out. I have 1.5MB DSL, hmmmm.

Well just changed to my 50's-60's station and The Beach Boys, Roy Orbison, and Del Shannon are playing fine...

Totally the cooest sh*t on the block

I sent some email back and forth with one of the co-founders....and he sent me a t-shirt!

Nice...were you giving him suggestions based on what you seen with the player and what we have posted here?

Basicly, I was first inquiring and pushing for integration for the Squeezebox, telling him how much I enjoyed the project, and later that I have told many people that seem to be enjoying it as well.

Pandora now works with the Squeezebox!!!!

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Dear Slim Devices Customer,

We're excited to announce that we've added support for Pandora, an amazing music service, to SqueezeNetwork for Squeezebox2 and Squeezebox v3 owners.

Pandora is a music discovery service that lets you create custom stations based on your favorite songs or artists. If you haven't experienced Pandora, I recommend that you visit <http://www.pandora.com> and try it out on your computer.

The first time I used Pandora on my Squeezebox, I was glued to my listening chair the entire weekend. Since Pandora is part of SqueezeNetwork, you can even listen to it without your computer being on.

To try it out with your Squeezebox, log on to <http://www.squeezenetwork.com/> and sign up for a trial Pandora account by clicking on the Pandora link on the top-right of the page. Then use your remote to connect your Squeezebox to SqueezeNetwork and browse into Pandora Radio.

I have more good news. Squeezebox v3 and Squeezebox2 owners can listen FREE to Pandora for 90-days. US-based customers can continue their Pandora service for only $36 per year.

This is truly a "killer app".

Cheers,

Patrick Cosson

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Listening to it now! Excellent!

I've been using Pandora occassionally. I find it can get repetitive with songs, not within a single listening session, but if you close that session and then go back to the same channel later. It makes it feel like the song selection is limited. Overall I've enjoyed it, it would be nice if they had a record of past listening history instead of just the current sessions to better be able to give out new music. Obviously, that would be a lot more to keep track of on their end, which is likely why it isn't done currently.

zarak, I get the same thing, but I still find it better than the radio.

Can't argue with you there.

Man, I've got a wireless G network setup now. My main DSL router is upstairs. I"m down in the basement, cranking up some Poison on Pandora on my Axioms, man it sounds so good, I can't believe it....The 500 is rocking.

Wow, if Axioms can make Poison sound good...



I keed, I keed...

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Wow, if Axioms can make Poison sound good...

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See, now you're sticking to the pecking order, can only make fun of those below you on the chart...

Classical > Jazz > Old School Punk > New School Punk > Industrial > Rock > Crossover > Metal > Pop > Black Metal > Rap > Hip Hop > Children's Entertainment > White Noise > Wesley Willis > Ska > Glam



Bren R.

Oh, no, glam is way better than ska. Plus you forgot Christian rock.

All right, all right, I'm also a kettle...

Where does Prog Rock fall on that scale?