On Why Pandora Fails Me

[lhynard]

I have been trying to give Pandora a chance recently. dogs_n_rodents first mentioned it a while ago, and one of my coworkers has been using it.

I questioned dogs_n_rodents as to how it might be better than other Internet radio sites that try to figure out one's tastes, such as LaunchCast (from Yahoo!) that I have used a lot in the past. She informed me about the Music Genome

Comments

[dogs_n_rodents]

talking to people with similar tastes is a better way of finding new music you like.

This presumes that people know what sort of music you're talking about if you're talking about comparison and contrast.

For example, many people have heard of the group Evanescence, however, mention a group like Nightwish or Theatre of Tragedy, and you get strange looks, even though those two groups have the same basic elements that most people like about Evanescence - female lead vocals, a harder rock/electronic background, melancholy tones. Short of having a very, very eclectic knowledge of all musical groups out there, I think one would be hard pressed to find somebody who can faithfully compare your music interests with those they know of that are similar -- especially when you do have exotic interests.

[lhynard]

The problem I've found is that it takes an Evanescence song I like and says, "Oh, he likes women singers," (I don't usually -- in rock songs anyway -- E. is the exception,) "he likes piano," (only when fused with other things,) "and he likes melancholy," (only if I'm in the right mood). It ignores what I really like about E. -- the fusion of metal with classical and etherial qualities -- and plays some pop/rock girl singer on a piano. Boring! :)

[lhynard]

Yes, I think it is foolsih to disregard lyrics.

Actually, it doesn't really disregard them; it tries to evaluate them, but it's entirely subjective. The best it ever does is call worship lyrics "uplifting". Any song about relationships is called "romantic". And then I love the one "excellent lyrics". In whose opinion? For all its talk about genoming music, it is very subjective.

I've not really found people's suggestions any better though. sadeyedartist is beginning to figure out certain elements that tend to make songs favorites in my book, but that is from getting to know me rather well. Most people don't know we well enough to figure this out.

Pandora also ignores nostalgic factors, of course.

Genome Filters

[anonymous]

What I think would maximize my Pandora enjoyment is genome filtering. Let's look at the FULL set of genomes and check the combinations we want until we see that there are a managable set of tracks (in numbers, not names) to listen to. Each new checked genome brings a more retricted set. If the set gets too small, back up a level. Perhaps RIAA will say no set can be fewer than 30 tracks. That's OK. Select my songs randomly from the 30. But if I know how to describe the genomes I like, those 30 tracks will be perfection is a music stream.

Re: Genome Filters

[lhynard]

Yes, this would be a great plan.

I'd suggest you write to Pandora directly about it. I've already sent them an e-mail about this issue, and they responded that it was "too confusing for most users." Perhaps if enough people write about this, they will change it.