The endless debate, or why I hate Pandora.
So I really don't hate hate pandora.... it's just really frustrating and annoying. I was turned onto it by a friend who extolled it's awesome virtues while we were in Japan together, and of course because we were in Japan we couldn't actually use pandora. We found instead a nice alternative in Grooveshark, which was nice but often had lag in songs and buffering problems. And hasn't really been used since I got back to the US.
Yesterday, while studying like a fiend for today's 8:00 am exam I decided I needed some good music to listen to while I was at it. So I popped onto Pandora and assumed, foolishly it appears, that it was similar to Grooveshark. Not at all. The 'music genome project' is pretty sweet I admit, it came up with a lot of songs that I liked. Unfortunately it also had some really annoying qualities which have rendered it non-cool in my book.
The main one of course, is that to use Pandora you have to choose an artist, genre, or song you like and it builds you a personal 'radio station' based on that song. But I SWEAR that every time I'd pick a song I liked, it would NEVER play that song. Lots of other songs sure, songs by the same artist sure, but not the song I actually wanted to hear. Now this has something to do with licensing issues but I'm not sure what the problem is with it. I've heard that 'after a while' it'll play the song you selected, well not for me. I listened to the same station for an hour, heard 2 other songs twice but never heard the song I chose for the 'station'. And this happened more than once (eventually I'd pick a new 'station'). The other annoying thing about Pandora is that you can't listen to a song more than once, so say you were really feeling a song, well once it's over it's over and you just have to wait and see if it comes up again. And, while I've not done this enough to have this problem, Pandora also doesn't let you skip a ton of songs. There's a limit to how many you can skip in an hour.
So I've gone back to Grooveshark, which now that I'm in the US and like not half a world away from their servers, doesn't have lag and buffer problems. And I can create PLAYLISTS of songs I like that Grooveshark will remember and play for me again. And if I like a song I can listen to it as much as I like. It also has a function called 'autoplay' which works like the 'music genome project' in that it selects songs for you, and there's only been a couple I didn't care for and skipped over. So.... if I can get all this from Grooveshark, why would I want to use Pandora? Ideas? Thoughts? Think I'm crazy?
On a side note, I was procrastinating on the internet last night and came across this:
www.tumbleweedhouses.com/
They are TINY houses, like probably about as big as your bathroom. This guy makes them and actually LIVES in them. Craziness. I think it'd be cool as a getaway cabin or something but to live in full time? With only 89 square feet? I couldn't do it!
Or this! 84 sq. ft. and a $6 a month heating bill? Sooooo soooo tiny.
http://www.katu.com/news/local/8499817.html
Yesterday, while studying like a fiend for today's 8:00 am exam I decided I needed some good music to listen to while I was at it. So I popped onto Pandora and assumed, foolishly it appears, that it was similar to Grooveshark. Not at all. The 'music genome project' is pretty sweet I admit, it came up with a lot of songs that I liked. Unfortunately it also had some really annoying qualities which have rendered it non-cool in my book.
The main one of course, is that to use Pandora you have to choose an artist, genre, or song you like and it builds you a personal 'radio station' based on that song. But I SWEAR that every time I'd pick a song I liked, it would NEVER play that song. Lots of other songs sure, songs by the same artist sure, but not the song I actually wanted to hear. Now this has something to do with licensing issues but I'm not sure what the problem is with it. I've heard that 'after a while' it'll play the song you selected, well not for me. I listened to the same station for an hour, heard 2 other songs twice but never heard the song I chose for the 'station'. And this happened more than once (eventually I'd pick a new 'station'). The other annoying thing about Pandora is that you can't listen to a song more than once, so say you were really feeling a song, well once it's over it's over and you just have to wait and see if it comes up again. And, while I've not done this enough to have this problem, Pandora also doesn't let you skip a ton of songs. There's a limit to how many you can skip in an hour.
So I've gone back to Grooveshark, which now that I'm in the US and like not half a world away from their servers, doesn't have lag and buffer problems. And I can create PLAYLISTS of songs I like that Grooveshark will remember and play for me again. And if I like a song I can listen to it as much as I like. It also has a function called 'autoplay' which works like the 'music genome project' in that it selects songs for you, and there's only been a couple I didn't care for and skipped over. So.... if I can get all this from Grooveshark, why would I want to use Pandora? Ideas? Thoughts? Think I'm crazy?
On a side note, I was procrastinating on the internet last night and came across this:
www.tumbleweedhouses.com/
Click to viewThey are TINY houses, like probably about as big as your bathroom. This guy makes them and actually LIVES in them. Craziness. I think it'd be cool as a getaway cabin or something but to live in full time? With only 89 square feet? I couldn't do it!
Or this! 84 sq. ft. and a $6 a month heating bill? Sooooo soooo tiny.
http://www.katu.com/news/local/8499817.html