I'm doing something wrong, aren't I?
So I’m on Pandora — I have been here a few times in the past trying to find similar music to what I love as a way to introduce myself to new music.
The problem is more times than not I get introduced to stuff that doesn’t sound at all similar to what qualities I like in a song.
For instance, tonight I started with the Doors and Moonlight Drive — The deep baritone vocal from Morrison, coupled with the trance like bridge section from Manzarek and the jazz style drumming from Densmore make this song a classic to me. Those are the qualities I am endeared to in the music.
What I get are songs that are probably comparable in structure but not too comparable – to me – to what the song invokes with the mood. A song that invokes the pace. A song that simply makes me do a double take that I want to hear again.
I tried You’re Going to Lose That Girl by the Beatles next. Again, the genome project picked up on the structure of the music and not so much the mood that’s set. The pace of the song doesn’tseem to carry over in the suggestions, nor does the vocal harmonies, nor the rhythem bae of the song that doesn’t overstep it’s bounds… But mostly it’s the vocals that are most catchy with the song.
And wasn’t catchy at all with the suggested songs that followed. I know, I am asking for a tough act to follow with bands that can compare to the Beatles or songs that can compare to the Beatles but there has to be something out there. This is a 43 year old song for god sake…
I did have a better time when I tried surfer instrumental rock (Walk, Don’t run gave way to soem great music) but that’s instrumental all the way. That’s how Pandora is supposed to work.
Maybe I’m just too picky with music…? Or maybe I am just doing this wrong.
Hi John –
Lucia here, from Pandora. I found your post via web search; I hope you don’t mind me leaving a comment. 🙂
There are a number variables that come into play when Pandora is selecting the next song to play on your station: the characteristics of the artist you entered as the station seed, the type of feedback you’ve given on the songs (thumbs up or thumbs down), and any additional artists/songs you’ve added to the station. Pandora lumps all this together and tries to determine what the best musical match is based on our musical analysis.
Sometimes stations do take a little bit of time to “train” to your tastes… Here’s several things to try that might improve your stations:
– Entering a song to create a station is often better than entering an artist. This is because sometimes artists have broad repertoires. This can lead to some eclectic results.
– Enter more than one artist/song into the station. This will add more appropriate songs to the playlist.
– Add multiple songs or artists to a station by clicking the triangle next to the station name and selecting “Add more music to this station”.
– Give feedback: thumbs up songs that do fit in the station, and thumbs down songs that don’t.
– To ban an artist from a station, just give two songs by that artist thumbs downs. Keep in mind, this is station-specific; it will only affect the station you’re currently listening to.
– If you’re sick of a song, but don’t want to ban it from the station, you can always just click on ‘Guide Us’ and put the song “to sleep” for a month.
– Consider only giving a thumbs up to a song when you like (almost) every aspect of a song, because each thumbs up will add more songs to your station, perhaps in a range that is wider than you had hoped.
– Look here (http://blog.pandora.com/faq/index.html#88) for more info on creating and tuning Pandora stations.
I hope all that helps!
Cheers, Lucia