Why does Pandora do this?

[Steve M.]

Originally Posted by ABlairican Pie

Pandora is an online music app. You choose which artist you want to listen to, and they will provide songs for you to listen to, in addition to similar artists.

Hmm, I ought to look into that . . ..

[Hawkee]

Another habit I discovered with Pandora is that if you create a station of say Stephen Sondheim or any Broadway play like Cats instead of hearing Stephen Sondheim show tunes or songs from Cats all you hear is Judy Garland Dinah Shore or Ethel Merman songs and it surprises me that Pandora has lots of Broadway cast albums but you rarely hear the selected Broadway cast album you chose as your station and all you get is Mamma Mia and Wicked and other Broadway plays and why Pandora does this I'll never know. But if you add a Bob Seger And The Silver Bullet Band station Pandora seems to play a lot of their songs and you rarely get Billy Joel songs or The Eagles songs on it. But if you add an artist like Peter Frampton you rarely hear Peter Frampton songs or just one and then you hear Steve Miller and Bruce Springsteen and Pandora should quit this habit and work on improving themselves

[Hawkee]

I think Pandora is desperate for more people to get more appeal and why I think they like to double play popular songs by artists is because that's the artist's most popular songs of all time but once again they still have the same annoying habit of playing other artists songs and NOT the artist featured on the artist's station that it's supposed to play. For example if you create an Usher station you rarely hear Usher and instead you cycle through R. Kelly songs Babyface songs Beyonce songs and Missy Elliott songs before Usher finally plays and I still can't figure it out. I noticed this when I was adding some country stations for my father to listen and first I created a Sylvia station and instead of Sylvia I got Conway Twitty and then Barbara Mandrell and when Conway Twitty appeared the song was Hello Darlin' and this song when you create any country artist's station this Conway Twitty song always pops up and it annoyed me that I gave up and got rid of the Sylvia station and then I created a Patsy Cline station and that one plays Patsy Cline songs but if you have a Ronnie Milsap station you don't even hear any Ronnie Milsap songs and you hear Lee Greenwood and Crystal Gayle songs. But if you have a The Carpenters station or a Barry Manilow station all you get is Loggins And Messina Anne Murray and Billy Joel and for some unknown reason as I mentioned in previous posts in this thread Pandora must have some obsession with Billy Joel because no matter what artist you listen to the songs Vienna and Uptown Girl and Tell Her About It always pop up. I don't know why Pandora does this but as I mentioned many times they should offer a version of Pandora with unlimited skips and play the artist's songs on their station and that should make Pandora subscribers happy indeed

[Hawkee]

What I think Pandora is trying to do is try to get more listeners and they like adding the same songs by the artists that are popular. But I found out that if you have a Frank Sinatra station you actually get tons of Frank Sinatra songs and if you have stations of folk music like The Kingston Trio and The Seekers and The Weavers you actually hear their songs on their stations. But if you create a station of any country singer such as Hawkshaw Hawkins or Ronnie Milsap and even Kris Kristofferson you still rarely hear their songs but they'll play George Strait with either The Chair Nobody In His Right Mind Would've Left Her or Amarillo By Morning and Hank Williams or Clint Black and Toby Keith. And if you create a Jimmy Buffett station all you hear is either Eric Clapton or Bonnie Raitt or John Prine songs and few Jimmy Buffett songs with Come Monday being the only one played. Pandora needs to really improve themselves if they want to attract listeners

[Hawkee]

I also think Pandora needs to expand their Christmas music stations because they always double play the same Christmas songs by different artists. Take for example if you have a holiday station of The Muppets they play The Chipmunks and few Muppets Christmas songs or if you have a Ray Charles holiday station they play Booker T And The MG's or The Ramsey Lewis Trio and you get one Christmas song of Ray Charles and that's all. But the one station that plays all his Christmas songs is Frank Sinatra's holiday station but if you have a The Beach Boys holiday station you'll hear two of The Beach Boys Christmas songs and then it will go to Mariah Carey Straight No Chaser or The Ventures and Pandora should improve their holiday music stations. Because if you want to hear a singer like Andy Williams they should have more of Andy's Christmas songs not just It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year which gets overplayed on Pandora a lot

[Hawkee]

I think ever since Sirius XM bought Pandora Pandora has ruined itself and one of the things that has ruined Pandora is them repeating and double playing the same songs over and over and over again. Take for example if you have a station of John Denver you never hear any other John Denver songs like I'm Sorry or Some Days Are Diamonds but the only John Denver songs you'll hear on Pandora's John Denver station is either Rocky Mountain High Take Me Home Country Roads or Annie's Song and it seems that those three songs are very popular John Denver songs on Pandora. Another thing about Pandora that I don't understand why they do it is if you create a station of any 80's singer like Cyndi Lauper or Belinda Carlisle you'll hear Billy Joel all the time and they either play An Innocent Man Vienna Uptown Girl Tell Her About It or Piano Man and what's Pandora's obsession with Billy Joel? And when you hear any 80's station when they play Starship all they play is Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now and never We Built This City and Sara and it seems that Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now is the most popular Starship song on Pandora but if you have a movie or video game station you actually hear Pandora play the movie scores like Marvel movie scores and if you have a station of a video game such as Call Of Duty it actually plays the video game's score. But I mainly think Pandora is desperate to showcase popular songs from all genres and this formula is the way they have ran it

[Dude111]

I think XM was the better of the 2 and that jackass Mel Kelwhatever ruined them both......... Then he left the company!!!

Very sad.........

[Hawkee]

Another habit I noticed with Pandora is that if you have the Connie Francis station you never hear any other Connie Francis songs and the only Connie Francis songs they seem to play is Who's Sorry Now My Happiness Where The Boys Are and Everybody's Somebody's Fool. I mean where is Pretty Little Baby Vacation Lipstick On Your Collar and Mama? And if you have any country station from the 80's and 90's Pandora only plays two George Strait songs which are always The Chair and Amarillo By Morning and there's other George Strait 80's hits besides these two. But what Pandora needs to do is quit their Billy Joel obsession badly

[Hawkee]

I also noticed with Pandora that if you have a station of The Eagles it seems the only The Eagles songs Pandora has are either Take It Easy Take It To The Limit Hotel California Lyin' Eyes and Peaceful Easy Feeling. I mean where is New Kid In Town or I Can't Tell You Why? and they should play more songs of The Eagles besides those songs. And when you have George Strait's Pandora station they always play either The Chair Amarillo By Morning You Look So Good In Love or Ocean Front Property. Where are songs such as The Fireman Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind or Marina Del Rey? But no matter what artist's station you put in Pandora they still have their Billy Joel obsession because the only songs they seem to play of Billy Joel are Uptown Girl Keeping The Faith and A Matter Of Trust. Where is Shameless The Downeaster Alexa and We Didn't Start The Fire?. I think Pandora needs to still improve itself and give listeners more songs to listen to

[Hawkee]

Every time my mom and I listen to the George Strait station on Pandora it seems that the only George Strait songs they seem to play are I Can Still Make Cheyenne Easy Come Easy Go Check Yes Or No Amarillo By Morning The Chair You Look So Good In Love Write This Down Ocean Front Property and Fool Hearted Memory. Where is Marina Del Rey A Fire I Can't Put Out and The Fireman? I mean there are other 80's George Strait hits besides these songs. Another thing is if you have a station of The Eagles the only songs that Pandora plays a lot of The Eagles is Hotel California The Best Of My Love Take It Easy The Long Run and Peaceful Easy Feeling. Why is I Can't Tell You Why or even New Kid In Town not played on Pandora? But if you have a station of Sarah Brightman or Andrea Bocelli on Pandora you actually hear different Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman songs. But I cannot figure out in the country music stations from the 80's to the 90's they repeat the same songs such as Toby Keith's Who's That Man Alan Jackson's Here In The Real World Clint Black's A Better Man and Kathy Mattea's Love At The Five And Dime and Pandora needs to improve their country music stations

[Hawkee]

Originally Posted by rusty spike

I'm trying to think of a logical rationale for their song selection. I haven't used Pandora in awhile, but your observations are spot on. You start with Def Leppard and you get two songs in a row (1st song very popular, 2nd lesser known) and then it shifts. It moves to AC-DC, maybe Van Halen, then Metallica, Aerosmith and then it sometimes goes to a Spanish rock song. WTH?

I'm thinking they don't have a giant music library or maybe you only get 2 songs of the artist/band you want to hear. Oh, there used to be a like or dislike button. The more I disliked a song, the more it would come up in rotation. I think it was intentional.

Another thing I also noticed about Pandora is where are the movie soundtrack stations? Because it seems that Pandora never has movie soundtrack stations and the only soundtracks of movies they seem to have lots of stations of are Disney movie soundtrack but if you want to find a movie soundtrack station such as Footloose or Valley Girl you won't find them but they have a Grease soundtrack station as well as a Grease 2 soundtrack station and a Dirty Dancing soundtrack stations but any other movie soundtrack stations Pandora doesn't seem to have. And where are the holiday themed stations of Pandora? It seems that Pandora only has holiday themed stations during Thanksgiving and Christmas and sometimes for the month of October you'll find Halloween themed music but since it was Father's Day Pandora did not have Father's Day themed stations with songs about fathers and it seems that Pandora only creates special themed stations around 4th Of July and Halloween and Christmas. But I am getting annoyed at Pandora's Billy Joel obsession because as I mentioned many times it seems that no matter what station you add to Pandora Billy Joel appears on every single station. And they should play different hits in the oldies stations. I mean Buddy Holly had an amazing library of songs but you only hear Peggy Sue and That'll Be The Day and It's So Easy and in The Beatles station where are songs like Nowhere Man Penny Lane Fool On The Hill Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine? Because Pandora overplays Here Comes The Sun I Will and All My Loving
Have you noticed Billy Joel getting double played on Pandora when you have listened to it Rusty Spike?