Tom - I am in the software biz here in the Bay Area and am an old fart (50ish) who enjoys unusual music. Kudos to you and your team on Pandora - it is a perfect format/vehicle for folks like me that do not want to listen to commercial radio or download music to iPods.

A couple of comments - it would be great if one could search for music types (e.g. "gregorian chants" - I put this in and got a bunch of new age drivel).

Second, some artist I pick, the site tracks them with incredibly tight selection (e.g. John Coltrane - one sweet piece after another). Other times it is really whacked (e.g. Salif Keita - generated a not of wacky non-African, non- world music selections)

This is the best thing since color tv, Hats off!

Hugh -

Try Hildegard of Bingen for a Gregorian chant station.
http://www.pandora.com/music/composer/Hildegard+of+Bingen

Your Salif Keita station is straying into other musical styles because our African music collection just isn't broad enough yet. We're actively working on our African music collection, and when we release the new music onto Pandora, your station will be fantastic.

Mike -

Thanks!!

Wow! Yes, Pandora is indeed the neatest thing since coloured television. Missing a few sub-genre's of Christian and world music, but y'all are off to an incredible start.

2nd Chapter of Acts - Christian - 70's - 80's Christian Pop Praise & Worship
http://www.2ndchapterofacts.com/

Terry Clark - Christian Praise & Worship
http://www.catalystpeople.com/

Lamb - Dancing In Jerusalem, Seer - Messianic Christian Praise & Worship
http://www.amazon.com/Dancing-Jerusalem-Lamb/dp/B00009EBUH
http://www.amazon.com/Seer-Lamb/dp/B00009EBUK

Ravi Shankar
http://www.ravishankar.org

Kudos, Thanks, Blessings!

Steve
SFrahm Radio
http://www.pandora.com/people/zz25

Thanks for the suggestions, Steve! You can send music suggestions to suggest-music at pandora dot com any time.

We're working on our "world" music collection as I type, so expect to see Ravi and many other international musicians soon!

Hello...
I'm new to Pandora and I'm curious... I've created several radio stations and put anywhere from 5 to 10 "seed artists" on them. Very rarely does Pandora play music from my seed artists. Am I misunderstanding the purpose of the seed artist? It plays a bunch of OK music, but rarely does it play the artists I am hoping to hear when I select that radio station. A couple of examples would be my JamBand station which is seeded with Grateful Dead (and family) or my San Francisco Sounds which is seeded with Jefferson Airplane/Starship or my Reggae station which is seeded with Bob Marley and Burning Spear. I almost NEVER get to hear these folks. Instead Pandora insists on playing excessive tracks by The Band, Bob Dylan, and Jimi Hendrix, for example. I like these folks, but I'd rather hear 10% of them and 90% of my seeds, not the other way around. Know what I mean?
I've looked at the library you are selecting from for the artists I've seeded and you have many songs (CD's) available from them. So, how come they don't play?
I really like the concept here... just trying to figure out how to hear more of the music *I* want to hear.

And, me...I'm still waiting for a show tunes/Broadway station...any work being done to get such a collection?

Thanks,
Mimi

Hi Jeff -

It's great to hear that you're enjoying Pandora! The service is designed to introduce you to new music through the artists and songs that you already know and love.

Pandora adheres to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act webcaster licensing which restricts what we can do. We can only play 4 songs from a given artist during a 3 hour period, due to licensing issues. As a result, you might not hear the artist you request as often as you'd like.

The restrictions imposed on webcasters are intended to allow you to enjoy the music in a radio environment without replacing the legal purchase of music.

That being said, Pandora is a music discovery service; we hope you can find Pandora useful in expanding your musical horizons!

Cheers, Lucia

Hi Mimi -

Yes indeed, we're working on our Broadway / show tunes collection -- thanks for asking.

It will take a while, but we have every intention of providing the same quality of listening and discovery experience for show tunes as we do for other musical styles.

Thanks, Lucia

This is great man! I type in a name and your system is endless. You guys are rockstars don't change a thing. Just what I wanted while on the computer and trust me I spend alot of time here.

I actually have the opposite problem from Jeff... because I value Pandora for music discovery, I'd love to be able to seed it with several artists I know well and then NEVER hear those artists - that's what my iPod is for. ;)

No worries, though, I'm sure I'm the only one who doesn't want to hear his own fave music!

Pandora has introduced me to so many new (to me) artists, I've lost count!

Colin
@ccarmichael

Thanks Mac!

Hi Colin -
Nice to see you over here in my neck of the woods! :)
You can always put the songs you're bored of (or already own) to "sleep" for a month at a time...just click on 'Guide Us' for that option.
That way, your station will be full of more songs that are new-to-you.

Cheers!
Lucia

Hi Lucia...

Thanks for the reply. I've done a little more experimenting. It's fun to try to figure out what Pandora's going to do with my seeds :-)

Reserving Pandora for my music discovery adventures will work well. Already I've found several artists I would like to explore further. And, I've resolved that when I want to hear what *I* want to hear, I'll just use my iPod or iTunes.

BTW, I turned my 78yr old Mom on to Pandora last week. Showed her the basics and when I came back a little while later she'd already created 10 radio stations! She loves it!!

Keep up the good work!

Jeff

Hello Jeff -

Sounds like a great plan. That's what I do too: if I'm dying to hear a specific song, I turn to my own collection. Which of course often means *adding* to my collection.

That's so cool to hear about your mom. We love our older contingent of Pandora enthusiasts!

Cheers,
Lucia

I just found this site and love it.
I am always looking for new tunes/artists. This site is perfect for finding new music to buy. Not only do you get to hear the complete song but they make it easy to find where to buy it. Bravo! I will be tuning in when ever I can.

Hey Folks!

The more I use Pandora the more I love it.

I almost stopped buying CD's altogether 'cause I couldn't hardly find anything that I liked enough to want to listen to over and over. Now there are not enough hours in the day to listen to all the music that I like.

Where did that thing to contact my congressman go to? I am so livid about what our US Congress has done with the prompting of corrupt folks like the RIAA to destroy internet radio, and the average musician together with it, that I can hardly remain polite. The only way we can keep music free and our favorite musicians fed, is to light a real fire under those corrupt politicians who are supposed to enforcing the will of the people, not the corporatocracy.

Thanks Again for all the wonderful jams.

Steve
http://www.pandora.com/people/zz25

Robin -
Thanks! Glad you're finding new music to buy!

S Frahm -
Thanks for your nice comment. Here the link with all the info you need: http://www.savenetradio.org/

You can enter your zip code here, to find out who to contact: http://www.capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/alert_9738601.html

Lucia,

1. Pandora is the bomb diggity
2. I would love to be able to update my twitter with the songs that are coming across my pandora. Is this currently possible? If not, is it in the works?

It might be cool to update my Twitter when I give a thumbs up or down to a song, with Artist, and title, and link of course.

Also, ala Pandora on Facebook, when I listen to one of my stations it would be cool to update my twitter with "jokahn is listening to Electronic Flow on Pandora" of course with links to it etc.

Anyhoo, thanks for a kickass product! Keep up the stellar work, long live Pandora!

Josh
twitter.com/jokahn

Thanks Josh!

Great suggestions; I'll definitely share those with our engineers / product managers.

See you on Twitter!

Lucia
@pandora_radio

I love pandora, i have 2 problems...i created a 80's playlist with about 10 song seeds, I've listened to about 50 songs so far on this station and i haven't heard even ONE of my song seeds. On top of that out of the 50 songs I've listened too its played songs that I've already heard and put in my thumbs UP list on average 3 times each, as a matter of a fact as I've been writing this I've heard 2 songs that I've already gave a thumbs to.

Hi Jake -

You might want to take it easy on the thumbs ups -- that should help. You'll hear your song seeds eventually. And if you never hear one of them, feel free to drop us a line, and we'll look into it. (pandora-support@pandora.com)

Here's some info that I think will help!
http://blog.pandora.com/faq/#88

:) Lucia, from Pandora