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Pandora - ?


Bosco-d-gama

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We stream free music from Pandora - just call ‘us’ cheap. Being of the 60’-ish age group we typically listen to stations comprised of that 1960/70’s genre. Right now we are playing the ‘James Taylor station - for example. So the problem is that Pandora loads these stations with other ‘fill’ music from supposedly similar groups/artists. For some reason most of the fill music offering comes from primarily these 3 groups - Simon and Garfunkel, The Moody Blues and Elton John. Much as I once enjoyed these groups I am becoming pretty tired of the same-ol-crap. 

 

The question is this:  If we should subscribe to Pandora is their service any better? Will we really get to hear more James Taylor on this station? Will we get less repetition of the aforementioned filler artists? Should we give up on Pandora altogether? 

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About all you can do with Pandora is thumbs up or down to try to tailor your music, I use it alot also not knowing which one to subscribe to.  I have heard many suggestions but none seem to have the algorithm to help find similar music to what I like as Pandora does, I wish they had better quality for paid subscriptions. i do have about 70 stations to get a different variety which helps.

 

I need to read about Tidal thanks Shakeydeal.

 

1 hour ago, Bosco-d-gama said:

fill music offering comes from primarily these 3 groups - Simon and Garfunkel, The Moody Blues and Elton John.

One of my kids made a station called 60;s, 70's and 80's hits, I put it on one day and was surprised, not bad at all and since it tends to cover a long time it has a pretty good variety.

 

The first station I made on Pandora was Jimmy Buffet for out in the yard tiki bar, I had only that one for a while. I did the thumbs down on alot of songs so now you rarely hear a JB song except for the first one and I skip past it.

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I started out with Spotify, tried Deezer for a couple months and then Tidal for a couple months and compared.  Not enough difference in SQ to justify the hokey control compared to Spotify so I stayed with them.  And I agree with the above about Tidal being geared towards (c)rap and owned by Jay Z.  Which could be part of the problem. 

 

My wife uses the free Pandora.  Whenever we are in the new house working on things and she's playing Pandora, I can always tell as the same songs/artists keep playing over and over it seems.

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For what it's worth:

 

Pandora Premium (?): I've had it for a few months now, since T-Mobile offered a one-year free deal. I used it for a couple of days, but haven't opened the app in weeks. Pandora's algorithm used to have some magic sauce in it, and I loved it. but that was years ago and I haven't liked/used it since.

 

Spotify Premium: great discover weekly, large selection to choose from. I miss the 'run-by-beat' feature when I used to go on a run, but they still have lots and lots of different playlists.

You can have it offline mode, change quality (low/high - before you could pick other options).

 

I think Apple Music offers a free trial (same with Spotify?). I think it's worth trying more than just one, and pick your favorite. In my opinion, these cater to different audiences.

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Thnx for the responses. Honestly it’s a nice problem to have - but I do need better and it sounds like Spotify may be the better option as rap is low on my poll also. I have become a lazy listener as age creeps ever higher, and I am not too digitally savvy. I tend to get things set up and running and accommodate what’s delivered. On the other hand I grow great tomatoes 🍅😁.

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2 hours ago, Bosco-d-gama said:

Thnx for the responses. Honestly it’s a nice problem to have - but I do need better and it sounds like Spotify may be the better option as rap is low on my poll also. I have become a lazy listener as age creeps ever higher, and I am not too digitally savvy. I tend to get things set up and running and accommodate what’s delivered. On the other hand I grow great tomatoes 🍅😁.

Tidal isn't all rap.  Just type in who you want to listen to or what genre you like and let it stream. I can't stand rap but enjoy Tidals SQ.

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Qobuz streams available selections in FLAC and offers the best quality.

 

Tidal and Deezer stream in CD quality. Tidal also offers MQA selections which some claim as an improvement, but you do need an MQA enabled DAC.

 

All the rest (Spotify, Napster, Pandora, Google Play, Amazon Prime Music) max out at 320kbps MP3 or AAC.

 

YouTube music supposedly has some hi-rez selections but the rest are all over the place.

 

I have all of them and have compared all of them over a loooong period of time.

 

I use Qobuz, Tidal and Deezer regularly when I want to hear streaming at its best, Pandora Premium for background music when I don't want to think about selecting albums and pretty much any of the above on airplanes.

 

I really like the Spotify interface and huuuuuge library. If and when they start streaming in at least CD quality (preferably Hi-Rez), I would certainly use it a lot more at home.

 

These are just my opinions and YMMV.

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We can argue about interfaces, search engines, libraries, etc. of different streaming services. But if SQ is what drives you (it does me), then Tidal or Quobuz are your only real choices. I haven't tried Quobuz, but the word on the street is that for the time being, their catalog (with the exception of classical, which is supposedly better) is lagging behind Tidal. So when that service catches up, I may give it a try. But I think 20.00/month for a service that I can access anything I can think of is a pretty good bargain. And it's indistinguishable from my seedees.  I've been a subscriber for almost six months now and have yet to look for and not find a particular album.

 

And yes, if you are a serious listener, you'll hear the difference over compressed audio. That said, if you are only looking for background music, or streaming to your desktop, Spotify should be fine.

 

The usual YMMV qualifier applies..........

 

Shakey

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40 minutes ago, Shakeydeal said:

We can argue about interfaces, search engines, libraries, etc. of different streaming services. But if SQ is what drives you (it does me), then Tidal or Quobuz are your only real choices. I haven't tried Quobuz, but the word on the street is that for the time being, their catalog (with the exception of classical, which is supposedly better) is lagging behind Tidal. So when that service catches up, I may give it a try. But I think 20.00/month for a service that I can access anything I can think of is a pretty good bargain. And it's indistinguishable from my seedees.  I've been a subscriber for almost six months now and have yet to look for and not find a particular album.

 

And yes, if you are a serious listener, you'll hear the difference over compressed audio. That said, if you are only looking for background music, or streaming to your desktop, Spotify should be fine.

 

The usual YMMV qualifier applies..........

 

Shakey

Agreed. 

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