Are there plans for having music from other countries? Like Japanese pop?

Pandora is great. I listen to it all day at work and I really like the idea of how it works based on sounds. I do have a couple of comments:
- Would it be too hard to normalize all the songs? I have to keep adjusting the volume.
- Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down. Nice and simple, but what about remembering when a song is given a thumbs up, so I don't have to (UI design principle).

You may have heard or weighed up these things before, but they are my initial findings after using it for about 2 weeks :-)

Ok... I'll bite. How do I find you when you're in NYC?

I just came across Pandora today, and all I have to say is wow. I don't think I've signed up for anything as fast as I did with Pandora. This is the 'best' thing I've ran across on the internet. Groups are being played that I have never ever heard of... and kicking myself for never ever hearing of them.

Suggestion: Not sure if this is possible, but it'd be nice to go back to previous played tracks.

Don't know what else to say, but god damn... keep it up!

All that is wonderful, but I am still unable to hear a song from Pandora. Please make it possible for dialup users to hear music from Pandora. I would simply love it if I could download songs or be able to stream it. And you know, people will appreciate you only if you allow them to listen to the song of THEIR choice, not YOUR choice. Because generally people will be in mood to hear a particular song at a time of day depending upon their mood. When you provide it to them, they will not only become happy but also recommend you as the best thing that ever happened to them. If you dont, I dont know how many people would really like it.

How do I delete a station?

Hey, Pandora is really fun, I was just tipped off to it today.

My first question (sorry if this is the wrong place; I can't figger out where else to ask) is why do my selections repeat with great frequency (ie one list had 4th of July by Galaxie 500 appear within 5 songs of each other).

Thanks for all you do to create this fascinating service!

mark

Well Tim,

A friend of mine in CA turned me on to this today and I must say I am pretty thrilled. The interface is clean, the initial selections based just on Daniel Lanois were interesting including a couple of unheard ofs. As I tweak the station the response seems appropriate. FAQ has no mispellings, EULA is as straightforward as possible; you guys are doing it right!

I look forward to being involved with Pandora on an ongoing basis.

Thanks fellers!

Mark Randle
Gestalt Technology

Love the service. Is fun to figure out some of the quirks and subtleties....Honestly? I still enjoy my Rhapsody stations too, but if you're a jazz fan in particular, you are VERY well served by Pandora.

Suggestion: Would be nice if you guys could provide the length (min., sec.) of each song as it is currently playing, as well as show the time elapsed. This is a common feature on Launchcast Radio, Rhapsody, etc. Keep up the good work...and I hope Pandora makes money (so the service sticks around for awhile)!

Incredible site. I've been recommending it to everyone! When my computer is on, you're there. :) Thank you!

Hi to all you music lovers!
A few suggestions:
-when adding a new artist/song, it would be nice to have the mouse cursor already in the text box
-after adding a new artist/song, a "Add again" button would be handy!

That's all for now!
Keep up the good work!

I really like this service a lot. It's an ambitious and ingenious project.

Have you ever dreamed of a band mixing Polka and Metal? I'm really curious to know how you'd break down the music of the band "Finntroll" into its consitituant parts on Pandora.

Actually there is a wide array of folk-inspired metal that is missing from Pandora. You have Korpiklaani listed, but that's about all that I've seen so far, and there is a lot more out there than just them. "Moonsorrow", "Asmegin", "Vintersorg", and "Otyg" are the ones that jump most readily to mind.

Actually I am most interested in hearing all manner of folk-influenced metal from all over the world. Flamenco-inspired... Appalachian inspired... I think my current dream would be to hear a metal take on Bhangra music (punjabi folk music... currently seeing a surge in electronic fusion).

Are you going to be coming to the UK at all? If so, stop buy Malvern! I'll hapilly buy you a coffee/pint and we can talk music :)

Hey Tim,

I dont know if it is the traffic from the site or what, but for some reason Pandora, is either really slow at loading, or cannot load at all. Is this because of the ads? I never reall have a lot of patience with slow loading times, so I guess I Will just have to sit and wait. :) It still kicks ass tho!

Dieds

I don't know what this post about, I just wanted to say that Pandora and the Music Gnome Project kicks ass! Keep up the great work, pandora is so cool, it's really revoluntionary!

One question - do the thumbs-up/down preferences only apply to a song within that station? For example, I may like a certain song, but feel that I dont want it on that particular station. A thumbs-down wont affect my other stations will it?

Thanks!

Hey, to the creators of Pandora. I give you extreme kudos!!! It is just frigging awesome! It has helped me discover more and more music that I like, and some that I despise. But still it is extremely kick ass, one thing though. I would like to see keyboard shortcuts, like tapping the spacebar would pause it, ect, ect. Otherwise though, I love Pandora. Keep up the good work!

i've been using pandora for two days because it works on my office mac even though streaming radio is blocked by the server. i'm so happy that i have four stations now. hope you can do something about what anon said (regarding the volume and remembering the songs i like). keep it up! ü

There's something in the FAQ that I didn't like to read:

Q: What is required to use Pandora?

Pandora works on Windows 2000 and XP with Internet Explorer 6 and Firefox. It also works on the MacOS X 10.3+ with Safari and Firefox. Flash 6 or 7 is required (7 recommended). We recommend a machine with at least a 1Ghz processor and 256M of RAM. You'll also need speakers or headphones. Older desktop computers may need a sound card. A broadband Internet connection is required; dialup is not supported.

This should be saying:

Pandora works on any Operating System with any browser which supports Flash 6 or 7 (7 recommended). We recommend a machine with at least a 1Ghz processor and 256M of RAM. You'll also need speakers or headphones. Older desktop computers may need a sound card. A broadband Internet connection is required; dialup is not supported.

That way, you'd be more truthfull and wouldn't discriminate Linux users as myself.

really enjoying this site, I see a lot of care in it.
Your roots reggae selections are impecable.
Salud.

Wow, just discovered 10 new artists that I really like and could learn from as a singer/songwriter! Thanks a million!

Feature suggestions / bugfixes from a fellow developer and singer/songwriter:
1. Be able to play songs that you have passed in the playlist again.
2. Be able to copy or save the "Why did you play this song" text, it can really help songwriters to identify better what they like about a genre or song.
3. "View your favorites" does not work in minimized mode on Safari, OSX Tiger.
4. Automatically put the "carret" in the input boxes
5. Add a "Add another" button when you add an artist
6. Don't limit the number of skips or make the number of possible skips larger if the number of "don't like" is more than number of "I like"'s in a certain time period.
7. A Zoom feature for the album art, it is hard to make out.
8. And finally -> PANDORA AS AN ITUNES PLUGIN would be suuuuuper cool.

Keep up the excellent work!

Eirikur S. Hrafnsson, Chief Software Engineer Idega Software.

Hey, I just got an idea. If you could create a 20k streaming channel , I would be able to hear songs from my dialup connection. Please see if you could do it at once.

I really want to listen to Pandora. It is really great.

Well done for redescovering all those obscure but wonderful album tracks!! I hope pandora will remain original and fresh like this for a long time. One general suggestion: keep the interface as simple and functional as it is now, don't gettoo carried away!! Part of Pandora's charm comes from its mystery: we don't have to know the exact mechanisms, or be able to mess around with them. That would spoil the fun, at least for me. Now some musical suggestions:

- "Melanie" by Player
- "Nobody but me" by The Human Beinz (personal favorite 60s party tune!)
-"Incense and peppermints" by Strawberry Alarm Clock
- "Rockabilly boogie" by Johnny Burnette!!!!!

I got up early this morning so I could get to my computer and get Pandora started. That's how exciting it has been to discover this.

I completely understand the (few) restrictions imposed by your licensing agreements. They are a negligible price to pay for an amazing service.

In the 20 years since college, I have bemoaned no longer having easy access to musically aware people who could expand my horizons. No more! Thank you!!!

Pandora is such a GREAT idea!!! I'm from Chile, and I just love music, and your website allows me to get to know a lot of fantastic music!

CONGRATULATIONS!

OK. I've been listening to Pandora for about a week now since Launchcast lost licensing for alot of my favorite artists. A couple of major flaws in this system. The fact that the Music Genome method of categorizing music doesn't differ between popular and obscure music is not always a good thing. My musical tastes are very out of the mainstream and I've given Pandora around 100 artists that I would like to hear. So, when I hear Loverboy, Jessica Simpson and Night Ranger on my Pandora station, I get the feeling somebody didn't do their homework.
Pandora has to allow a way of restricting certain kinds of music completely other than just the thumbs down on a particular song. I really feel that Launchcast had a great system for learning my likes and dislikes. Unfortunately they are limited by they're own success.
Perhaps I need to give Pandora some more time to weed out the junk from my station. I do appreciate the attempt to expose me to new music I've never heard before but a large majority of new music is crap, plain and simple. If Pandora is filling they're catalog with tons of new music, much of it is getting through to my station and sounding awful. Sorry to be so harsh but all the gushing arss kissing comments aren't going to improve Pandora. And it's way too early for you guys to be perfect.

Dumb question?

Any way to keep an alblum from coming back after you thumb downed it? I might even like the alblum, but not want it at that station.

great fun,

P.

I could almost weep with all the new discoveries I've made in the last week. This is by far and large THE best music website on the internet. I could really care less if I don't get MY choice of what song from a particular artist is being played. It's great just to hear it! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this wonderful creation. My music collection will never be the same!

In the 80s I was the Chart Editor (among other responsibilities) at Canada's national music trade magazine called RPM Weekly, which listed the nation's Top 100 singles and albums, as well as other industry stuff... and then went on to launch and run a label for ten years. I'm wondering if the project was considering branching out on a geographic level - to acquire not only regionally successful or popular titles (art projects, as some members are requesting, or privately released music) but also new territorial advertising partners. Furthermore, is the code transferable to similar content and revenue applications across other industries?

Cheers! Great site. One of the best yet.

I see through your little game. You say you want musical conversations but your real nefarious plan is to hamstring productivity! Since I Stumbled onto Pandora I find myself losing whole chunks of the day exploring new music! Curse you for coming up with such a fab idea and then implementing it! I may never get a full day's work done again.

Cheers,

Jeff

P.S. Just kidding (duh!), LOVE the site, keep it up
J

I just discovered this today, and sheepishly thought, where have I been? Apparently you're based in my home town. I very well may see if you have any entry level job openings coming up. It's a great concept, and works well. I'm involved with Cafepress, and appreciated their meet and greet in SF. I wish I had known about Pandora's.

you guys don't have much stuff from brasil... i can't believe that you don't have any jorge ben

One thing I'd like to see would be if the lyrics themselves were somehow taken into account.

I would just like to say, HUGE PROPS to Pandora. Man this is the greatest thing ever! Not only to I get to hear the artists that I love somewhat regularly, but you associate different music with that artist, which has been awesome, I have only been using your service for about 3 days, and I have 18 bands/muscicians written down that I need to download. Awesome service guys, keep up the great work.

Travis M.

San Antonio Texas

Tim & All the Pandora staff,

Love it. Every time I listen I find something cool to fit my mood. Latest: Odetta (who I heard on NPR).

Could you put a link to the Blog on the application Help menu? Reading it is part of the fun.

Also, perhaps you can put your blog entries into an email distribution. I don't always have access to Pandora but a reminder in the form of emails about cool music would be great.

I keep trying to forward my car radio when they play bad music. Could you fix that please? lol.

Keep it! Looking forward to the next upgrade.

Yvette

I noticed that you have some Jill Sobule songs.. but not a whole lot - it would be cool if you could add more....
Supermodel
Karen by Night
Margaret
I Kissed a Girl
... to name a few

I also wanted to suggest a Spanish pop band - La Oreja de Van Gogh - their music is good and starting to catch in the US.

But this is truly amazing... one of my friends turned me on to Pandora, and I come to the site practically everyday so I have music to do my work to. Grazie!

hey Pandora guys, surely the flash interface should say "My Favourites" and "My Radio Stations" instead of "your" - would make it feel much more personal as if you are doing it all for me..

also the `Guide Us' button should surely say Pandora - then people could feel that each time they click on it they are opening up the box a litle bit more. Guide Us feels so tinny and technical.

Go the long tail of music !!!

I think i love you

THUMBS UP TO PANDORA! I join the evergrowing number of satisfied users, this is the greatest thing that happened 2 music on the net. Maybe adding an additional link to get info about the band playing could help both listeners interests and bands popularty.
A big bow to the creaters of this lovely site.

Unbelievable!! You people are really on to something here. I hope you continue to expand and add unusual genres. Can you make the "thumbs-up/down" symbol a little brighter?

Like Mitesh said, i've never signed up to something as i did with Pandora, it's great, friends of mine say it's great too! everybody's found the music they love, i'm very happy 'bout it!

I was told about your website by a friend who thought it was good. I have just used it for the first time and was extremely disappointed with it. How are Tommy 'Talentless' Lee and 'Pisspoor' Poison in anyway related to Mudhoney, have you or any of your staff ever actually heard a Mudhoney track. I noticed that both of those tracks are off recently released albums. Perhaps you are receiving money from their record labels. all the best. Rich.

just wondering if you can keep us canadians informed as to any progress getting the rights to offer us your nifty service. thanks

Well, I really like the concept, the fact that you can choose a song, then the player will bring you other artists or songs along the same genre., then you can adjust, simply by thumbs up or down. This is similar to yahoo music, but more variety of songs, such as somewhat non-"pop", which I really like. I was wondering..., yahoo has this widget program that I like, would it be possible to develop a widget for pandora members, so that they don't necessarily have to open a webpage to open a pandora player, and have the same functionality, I have seen other online radio players made for them, and I know nothing about coding, but I'm sure it would only take a few hours to create one, using what they describe as easy to develop. Here's the link,http://widgets.yahoo.com/gallery/ and if i need to develop on my own, I will need some info on how the player works, simple things, I believe, actually, I'm sure. please respond at your convenience.
thank you.
Jermaine G.

really cool idea, love the site. Only thing that"s disapointing is the shortage of non american music. I guess it will come though.Try Alabama 3,strangely from London.

Carissimo Tom.
As a writer/producer./composer, who happened to know chaps like miles, Dizzy, Sarah, Ella, Jobim, the Bossman,,,,,,I find your site too divine for words. Of course, you are expanding and some kinks are bound to occur. What the diable. I am patient. I must have over 15 stations of my own and counting. But dahling, I have just attempted to share with 25 friends and relatives in all 5 continents...so far no one has received my station''BODY AND SOUL''
Contessa Isabel von Fechtmann
from the Italian Riviera
Ciao. I shall endeavor to send more communiques.
I'd adore to host a Pandora party in Italy. I used to be Gucci PR worldwide so you can just imagine.

MIO CARO,.
PLEASE FORGIVE ME FOR MY TYPO . I AM MORTIFIED THAT I WROTE TOM INSTEAD OF TIM.

TILL SOONEST.
CONTESSA Isabel von Fechtmann

I love it, I love it, I love it!! I'm sure a lot of the concerns previously mentioned will be addressed in later releases. I'd like to add the ability to add songs from specific time periods. For instance, suppose I wanted to hear just 70's funk or hip hop from 2005 or the latest releases within the past 3 months, that sort of search.
Can't wait to see what else you've got up your sleeves!! Thanks.
K

Tim Caro,
Thank you for your prompt reply. Compliments of an efficient assistant or of You?
Pandora is truly great fun. I wold be ever so grateful if one of your collaborators, one of those sweetum geeks , could help me out with sharing my radio stations. That is a zowie way of expanding/growing/proselytising/propagatingPandora.
I speak five languages, more accurately they are 7 languages. I love listening to songs in Spanish/Castilian, Brazilian - indeed I have Jobim and Ellis Regina stations. I knew Tony Jobim well. He was often a houseguest in my villa in Florence, along with Vinicius de Moraes, the Real Pater of the Bossa Npva.....
Toquinho, Veloso, Gil, Nascimento and Flora Purim.
There is a young Jazz singer, Russo-Canadian, who can't be over 21. Her name is Sophie Milman. If you want to hear the colors and see the sounds - listen to Sophie. She is with Linus Entertainment, recently snapped up by Universal. I have her website somewhere.
There is also Hugh Masekela, too cool for words. He used to live in exile in London, whilst Madiba ( Mandela ) was in prison. Hugh used to be married to Miriam Makeba, Mama Africa.
There's Ofra, the Yemenite Jewess who is stupendous.
Several uncorrupted gypsies, singing from Serbia and Romania which are notable singers..
Then , there is the music of Hildegarde von Bingen, dead 900 years. Several New Age gals from NCal recorded her songs. It's to get goose pimples. Perhaps, I should not say she was a Saint , a mystic, prophetess/seer, composer, doctor, painter. There is a great deal of gratuitous religious bashing going on,
If you are serious about the genome project, some music in Aramaic, Arabic and ancient Hebrew, SYriac, Classical and ecclesiastical Latin would not be turned away by me. I would even assist.
Warmest Regards,
Contessa Isabel von Fechtmann

Pandora is awesome. Keep up the good work.

Here's a suggestion:
Allow me to choose what type of music I want. For example, sometimes I put in something, and pandora will choose to use major key tonality. Maybe I want minor key tonality. Why couldn't I control this myself?
Also, It would be cool if Pandora considered things outside of rhythmic syncopation, etc. Why couldn't it include emotion? I like Nick Drake because you can hear pain. Could you code the songs for more abstract elements? Maybe I could even choose which way you evaluate the song, for instance, by bass style, if it includes guitar solos with a ton of reverb. Anything could be possible.

What an amazing experience! I have never been able to find so much music that fits my often strange tastes. I was shocked at the volume of music I was able to access.

Also, I am really impressed by the definite match of each selected (and largely unknown) artists to the selected song/artist I requested. It's amazing. I also really enjoy how the selections cross genres and time periods while sounding remarkably similar. Elton John and Norah Jones in the same playlist? Simon and Garfunkel with sudden modern jumps that are so slight you hardly notice? FANTASTIC!

I have so many new "favorite" artists...people no one has heard of!

Thanks for enlivening my music tastes again!

If you're ever in Virginia, give a yell...I'd love to meet the creators of this project!

Thanks so much,
Best wishes,
and the very best of luck!
::Leah

Pandora is amazing, I'm stuck in China with no access to new music and suddenlt I find all of these amazing new sounds being thrown at me, superb!

I'd like to suggest an artist;

Jeffrey Lewis

Please do your best to add him to the selection, cheers!

Wowzas!!!!

This is the best site i've EVER been to in my entire life!!! I'm so jealous that I can't be a millionaire with the idea of Pandora. I read about the site in Time magazine and checked it out. Great great job to everyone who is involved. I'm getting my music fix all day! Oh just one mention...I don't have a Zip code since i'm canadian and there is no other option for registering, so all I can say is its a good thing I remember the show Beverly Hills 90210.

Hi Tim

This is one of the most exciting sites on the internet.

Ever since I first heard about Pandora it's completely changed the way I listen to music and totally expanded my musical horizons.

Great idea, really well thought out and exceptionally well implemented.

Keep up the good work.

Cheers
Steve

Pandora is a panacea for my musical woes, and a virus for the rest of my life. Seriously, there have been nights where my eyelids droop and sleep threatens to hold me hostage at gunpoint, and I still cannot stop listening. I can't stop listening because finding new music that I like on my own has suddenly gone from a tedious (and possibly expensive) chore to a nirvana-esque ease.

Becoming addicted to a song/band is nothing new for me. Becoming addicted to the medium through which the music is presented . . . definitely novel. I've been spreading the news of this discovery to my friends with the haste and enthusiasm of Columbus when he discovered America (thankfully, with a lot less violence). I can't wait until you guys figure out a way for me to take this with me when I leave the house. Hell, don't be surprised when I send you guys a job application when I'm done with college.

Keep up the good work. And as far as my two cents: everytime an artist plays that I've never heard of (which is very, very often), I like to find out more about them, and I find that allmusic.com is a great way to learn about artists and their releases. I think it'd be really cool to be able to click on the song playing and have an option to go right to allmusic's review of the album.

Thank you for a great service, it's amazing.

Just two things, one artist recommendation: the swedish artist Sophie Zelmani, fastastic songs. Sometimes described as the swedish Norah Jones (although in my taste much better).

And then just like someone else mentioned above I would love it if the lyrics were taken more into consideration. Examples of artists that I love particularly because of the great combination of fantastic music and lyrics out of the ordinary, Paul Simon, Weakerthans and Belle & Sebastian. When I listen to the channels created from these artist it seems like this aspect has been missed. Although I understand that it might be hard to do anything about it.

Forever grateful for this great service.

This is really exciting- I've found several heretofore unknown artists that I really like. However, the program doesn't seem to be selecting for female vocals (or even for a specific vocal range or tone).

It would be nice if users could rank specific musical characteristics according to importance/appropriateness for the station. For example, it would be neat to see a station where "prominent slide guitar" was the most significant characteristic.

Hey, will you please start selling Pandora T-shirts (and not just in men's sizes, either!) so I can spread the Pandora love?

I think it would be cool if you added an option to look at artist or album information from allmusic.com as a selection when you click on the album cover.

Amazing!

I did some reading before jumping in and I was concerned about your Hip Hop collection. Too many stations mislable their 'rap' collections. I was genuinely surprized that after a few thumbs down choices I'm able to listen to a steady stream of pure Hip Hop joints without the commercialized nonsence that wrecks the industry. Even crossover artists are getting only the tracks I enjoy played, and to top it off I'm hearing alot of artists that were unknown to me.

I noticed a response or two that mention lyrics getting more consideration. I can't help but feel that they are, given the tracks that are getting play time, but the 'why is this track playing' doesn't seem to incorporate that as heavily as musical characteristics. From a 'back packer's' point of veiw, an artists vocabulary and structure is much more important than the medium they are using.

Past all that, this is the best service I've found on the net. I'm excited for your emminent success. Good job!

Can you add soundtracks and classical music? Otherwise, Pandora is virtually perfect.

Pandora used to work on my desktop, but now it doesn't. I find that if I hold down CTRL and ALT keys, it plays. It worked before so I must have done something to inhibit it. It works fine on my laptop, and used to work fine on my desktop. Any suggestions as to how I can regain use of Pandora again, without holding CTRL and ALT keys, which is a real pain!

Thanks