Fun online radio site at www.pandora.com

[wackymother Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close wackymother]

Does everybody else already know about this?

I found a site called Pandora.com. You type in a song title or a performer, and Pandora creates your own personal "radio station," playing songs related in style to that first song.

I work at the computer all day most days, so this is great--the computer just plays background music all by itself! When I get tired of the genre, I just go over and switch to one of my different stations or create a new station. Very fun!

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

I posted about this a few weeks ago (maybe in G & A cafe). It will slow down a single core processor machine, but it's a nice site. You can also thumbs up or thumbs down songs in the genre to get more or no further play on individual songs. So it's a customizable internet radio.

[wackymother Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close wackymother]

Sorry, Tony, I must have missed your earlier post. I have a fairly new computer, and I'm just using Word on it at the moment, so I don't notice any slowdowns.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

No problem- I think I may have replied to a post on another internet radio station. My main computer has a single core processor and only 512 MB ram, so the machine slows down considerable when Pandora is on. I haven't tried it yet on the dual core laptop.

[vintner Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close vintner]

Another suggestion is Winamp.com. You need to download their player. Once that is installed, it will provide some good music videos on demand, and some older tv shows (limited selection and playing time). It doesn't customize radio stations for you, but does have a good selection of internet stations that (for me) fit my listening style.

[vintner Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close vintner]

My latest Woot purchase was a Slacker Radio. Now that I have it, I think it is pretty cool. Slacker.com is very much like pandora.com in that you can set up your own personal radio stations. The portable slacker radio will download your selections from the slacker website and fill your portable radio (ipod like player) with music from thier list of stations that you select or your created stations. It holds lot and lots and lots of music. When you want, you refresh your stations by wifi, you own wife or from places like starbucks. When the portable player is loaded, I take it on the road with me in place of my regular radio and of course when I am outside or traveling.

[grest Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close grest]

Yes, I've been listening to pandora for quite a while...fun, isn't it??
Connie

[Glitter Brunello Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Glitter Brunello]

and for downloads...

I really like Napster, too -- and they just started offering 5 downloads for $5 plus free unlimited streaming (which is available anyway). And Napster downloads are now DRM-free and playable on iPod, so our purely Mac household is about to dump iTunes....

[katiemack Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close katiemack]

This is great, thanks wacky!

[wackymother Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close wackymother]

My latest Woot purchase was a Slacker Radio. Now that I have it, I think it is pretty cool. Slacker.com is very much like pandora.com in that you can set up your own personal radio stations. The portable slacker radio will download your selections from the slacker website and fill your portable radio (ipod like player) with music from thier list of stations that you select or your created stations. It holds lot and lots and lots of music. When you want, you refresh your stations by wifi, you own wife or from places like starbucks. When the portable player is loaded, I take it on the road with me in place of my regular radio and of course when I am outside or traveling.

I was thinking about getting one of these from Woot, but I wasn't sure if there was a monthly subscription charge. Is there?

[Glitter Brunello Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Glitter Brunello]

Ok, I've been playing with Pandora -- very user friendly and fun. But somehow it has decided based on something I've added that I like country music...

[wackymother Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close wackymother]

Ok, I've been playing with Pandora -- very user friendly and fun. But somehow it has decided based on something I've added that I like country music...

As they say on Pandora, use your thumbs! Just give all that stuff a thumbs-down every time it comes up, and Pandora will eventually learn that you don't love it.

I was getting a lot of whiny contemporary female vocalists because I like Amy Winehouse, who isn't whiny but is a contemporary female vocalist, and some of the songs I get because I like George Gershwin are simply not to be believed. I think the more niche-y the song or performer you choose to base a station on, the weirder the Pandora matches will be. (And yes, it considers George Gershwin niche-y.)

[Glitter Brunello Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Glitter Brunello]

As they say on Pandora, use your thumbs! Just give all that stuff a thumbs-down every time it comes up, and Pandora will eventually learn that you don't love it.

I was getting a lot of whiny contemporary female vocalists because I like Amy Winehouse, who isn't whiny but is a contemporary female vocalist, and some of the songs I get because I like George Gershwin are simply not to be believed. I think the more niche-y the song or performer you choose to base a station on, the weirder the Pandora matches will be. (And yes, it considers George Gershwin niche-y.)

Yes, that is a cool feature. And they are coming up with some interesting songs. I haven't used Napster's streaming much (or any streaming) since I don't have good speakers on my laptop, but I will compare this to Napster -- the "buy" feature on Pandora is linked to iTunes, also interesting...

[vintner Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close vintner]

I was thinking about getting one of these from Woot, but I wasn't sure if there was a monthly subscription charge. Is there?

Basic service or downloading is free. There is two levels of paid subscription service, one at $4/mo, the other at $7.50 (i think). First level eliminates the (very few) breaks where they say 'you are listing to slacker radio' or something like that. It also give you more selection of favorites and skipping of the songs you don't want to hear, plus it give you the lyrics. I am not sure what the upper level provides.

The lyrics won't work with the G1 model that was sold on woot, and the small amount of breaks hasn't bothered me. The only think that may make the subscription worth while is the better selection of my favorites, better concentration of Pink Floyd or Moody Blues. The G1 and G2 also allow you to download your own music on it, so I could still have the MP3 experience with my own songs.

[wackymother Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close wackymother]

Basic service or downloading is free. There is two levels of paid subscription service, one at $4/mo, the other at $7.50 (i think). First level eliminates the (very few) breaks where they say 'you are listing to slacker radio' or something like that. It also give you more selection of favorites and skipping of the songs you don't want to hear, plus it give you the lyrics. I am not sure what the upper level provides.

The lyrics won't work with the G1 model that was sold on woot, and the small amount of breaks hasn't bothered me. The only think that may make the subscription worth while is the better selection of my favorites, better concentration of Pink Floyd or Moody Blues. The G1 and G2 also allow you to download your own music on it, so I could still have the MP3 experience with my own songs.

Thanks for explaining this! It's pretty complicated. You see why I was confused! I think I'll watch for it to come back in the next Woot-Off. Most Woots never really go away, do they? That one's been offered at least twice that I can remember.