Pandora The Music Finding Website
 

So I have now invested a whole bunch of time into pandora, found at hxxp://www.pandora.com. Basically you choose a song or band and it finds similar types of music that it thinks you might like. You then further refine it by giving thumbs up or thumbs down to songs that play. I now have a station that I'm pretty happy with after many hours of fiddling.

A cool feature of the site is that it will tell you why it selected a particular song. There are quite a few different phrases it uses for me, but the one it always has is that my songs have "major key tonality". Being completely ignornorant about music I have no clue what that means. Anyone out there who can help?

Seems like a pretty cool site. Have toyed with a few online radio stations, may start using this instead.

Major key tonality means that the song is based on a major scale. All music is based on some sort of scale, the vast majority being based on major scales, with the majority of the remainder being based on minor scales. What is a major scale? Think of it as a set of notes used as building blocks for a song. To hear a sample of what a majaor scale sounds like, walk up to a keyboard instrument (piano or whatever) and find a C. Start on that C and play every white key up until you get to the next C (8 notes altogether). That is a major scale, and those are the 8 notes that a song in "major key tonality" will be based on.

You can contrast this with a "minor scale" which you could hear by doing the same as the above except going A to A instead of C to C. The main difference in quality between the two will be that the major scale will sound "happier" or "brighter" and the minor scale will sound "sadder" or "darker." You may be able to spot this quality in music you like, also. You might tend to like music that is happier or brighter and shy away from darker music.

If you would like elaboration or more simplification of anything involving music theory or basic musicianship, let me know. I teach it for a living.

I'm a big fan of the site. But it keeps telling me that every song I like has "major vamping". I'm not sure what to think of that.

Vamping is a repeated section, usually a chord progression, frequently with an improvisational solo on top.

I have quite a bit of "major vamping" as well. Maples

Deattribution: I have subscribed to a few different radio sites as well, but frankly like this better, especially as the radio stations I listened to, since they were the ones I liked, almost always just gave me songs I already knew. I really like how Pandora gives me songs I would never have discovered before.

MJ4H: That's a great explanation. I kind of knew what major and minor was, but that explanation was great. I do, for the most part, tend to like "happier" upbeat music so that makes perfect sense.

Thanks for the website suggestions, Barkeep. So far, I found several songs I really like. It's been dead one so far.

It's telling me I like "Subtle use of vocal harmony, minor key tonality, electric rhythm guitars and a mixed acoustic and electronic instrumentation"

I guess it's right. :)

wow great find, barkeep 49! Thanks for sharing!

Crim

I figured there might be an old thread, but since I had a question in addition to my suggestion of the site I decided not to look for it and start a new one.

In March this year, I bought None Other's two albums because of pandora. If I hadn't heard their songs on pandora, I would've never have heard of them.

The key to building you station is the songs you give the thumbs up/down to. I found that when I got started with the site, I was making the mistake of giving the thumbs up to songs I liked that didn't fit the station I was trying to build. If you're making a Nine Inch Nails station and something by Guns N Roses came on, you need to give it the thumbs down even though it rawks hard. This doesn't affect any of your other stations.

Also keep in mind that the music you add (i.e. that you type in, not just rate) has a big impact. A specific song has a major effect, a group has somewhat less.

Another tip: according to the site, giving the thumbs down removes a song from that station's playlist permanently. If you give the thumbs down to a second song by the same artist, you remove all their songs from that station.

/agree with the thumbs up and down to make your station. I didn't know that if you give two thumbs down to the same artist it removes their songs from that station. Thanks!

Yeah... it can be tricky if you like artists who have a variety of styles.

What if you've given a thumbs up and two thumbs down to an artist? Not to be a smart alec, but there's a whole lot of Green Day, for instance, that I don't like, but there's also quite a bit I do like.

Not sure. I believe the second thumbs down is the death knell for that artist (but again, only on that particular station).

You have to remember to treat the thumbs as a judgement of the type of music, not necessarily the song itself. You might love the song, but it's not what you want for that station. Thumbs down. Or the song might be exactly the kind of thing you want on the station, but you happen to hate the lyrics. Might need to go thumbs up, or at least avoid the urge to vote thumbs down.

I believe on the FAQ screen it says that if you've given an upthumb to anything by the band previously, two downthumbs will not destructify their existence on your station.

Or words to that general effect.

this is a very cool site.

Thanks Barkeep, this is an awesome site and I keep it on all the time now.

This site makes the time go by go fast at work.

My Alice In Chains Station gets the most playtime by far. My stations are: Alice in Chains, Guns n Roses, Pantera, The Offspring, and Linkin Park. Someone at work asked if there are spanish stations and indeed, there are so I added Shakira and Vicente Fernandez.

Thanks Barkeep.

bump

Any interest in trying to create a shared FOFC Radio Station?

So this is like a better version of last.fm?

I pretty much listen to either Pandora or radioio all day. Takes a while to get your station where you want it, but it's great when you do.

I listen to Pandora all day as well. I have about 10 stations, with 3 or 4 playing the same type of music so I can jump to a different station if one plays too many songs in a row that I don't like.

Judging by all the GnR votes, no thanks. :)

+1!

But one based on the What the hell are you listening to thread, I'd be up for that.....

Awww... haterz :( ;)

I found it to be superior to last.fm, but unfortunately, Pandora is no longer accessible outside the US due to licensing issues. :(

That's pretty cool, thanks for the link.

The best part of Pandora is discovering new music that you love through the radio stations you build.

Ah, that sucks. :(

I'll have to check it out when I get back to the US then.

Its bizarre...sometimes I can log in, other times I can't. They must not do an IP check everytime so take your chances. You may be able to get in on occasions.

If you don't mind me asking, where are you located?

Everytime I tried yesterday and a few days before that, I keep getting that denied message. Anybody would know a proxy of some sort that would make it possible to use that thing?

FM

I would absolutely agree with this.

I am in Calgary. It's weird. I got in earlier today but other days I get denied. Not sure why. Maybe they don't do an IP search everytime you go to their website (or their IP indentifier isn't working). I tried to get in once through a proxy but I got an error message when the site tried to upload the program.

Question on Pandora usage: I'm currently in the process of refining a new station. I know that if you give thumbs down to two songs by an artist it will mean that particular artist won't pop-up again. Is this still true if I've given thumbs up to other songs by that artist?

No - thumbing up a song by an artist negates two thumbs down.

Thanks.

I'm having fun tracking the number of times qualities of songs come up to see what elements are most appealing to me.

One knock on Pandora: It seems to be limited to English-based artists.

For example, it can't find Boa Kwon or Mai Kuraki.

Compare this to last.fm, where I found those artists specifically through last.fm

I love this site much better than the old Musicmatch service