Thanks for the music

[jducoeur]

BTW, been meaning to mention: thanks for all the musical recommendations folks chimed in with a couple of weeks ago. I seem to have settled on a mix of Live365 and Pandora as my main listening options.

Live365 is better for moods when I want to explore -- with its hundreds of channels, there are a remarkable number of options. Both the Celtic-Rock station and Ethno-Techno have round up on my presets, and I come back to them frequently, although I'm finding some other very worthwhile stations. (Such as David Byrne's highly African-oriented playlist, or the Lebanese dance music station Mazaj. And I just found the all-Putumayo station, which I'm listening to now.)

Pandora is better for "comfort food" listening: I've built a single, *very* eclectic seed list, and the system has proven to be extremely good at sussing other things I will like based on that. (Indeed, many of the seeds come from Pandora throwing in a song, and my going, "Oh, right -- that group should be in the seed list.") It's getting better than 90% thumbs-up tracks. That said, its algorithms can be disconcerting. It's clearly not 100% random: it tends to run in "tracks" of a single style for half-a-dozen songs or so before switching over to something different, so I'll just have settled into a comfortable run of Stan Rogers-style maritime tunes when it suddenly switches over to AC/DC.

Anyway, I've sent real money over to Live365 (to get rid of the incredibly irritating commercials, and get the better sound quality), and will probably do so to Pandora soon (simply as a matter of supporting a good service). Both well-recommended options, if you have the bandwidth to listen online...

Comments

[aneirin-awenyd.livejournal.com]

If I'm remembering this right, Pandora plays one song from your seed list, and then three (or four? it's a preset number) that it chooses for you, then another (potentially very different) song from your seed list, then three/four similar ones it picks, etc.

I don't listen to it much, but I really like Pandora when I do want something to listen to. My computer is upstairs in a back corner and Seamus has our only wireless-capable machine with him most of the time, but if I had the option I would listen to Pandora all the time in our downstairs living space. I think they sell (very pricey) units that will do this, but it's not in the budget. Someday!

I had not heard of Live365. I should check it out. Thanks.

[jducoeur]

I'm reasonably pleased with Live365 -- the channel selection is excellent (I just did a quick count -- they have over 250 *genres*, and a bunch of channels in each), and the sound quality mostly quite good (once you upgrade to the "VIP" plan).

But it's relatively pricey for an online service: $5-8/month, depending on how much you buy in advance. It's worth that much to me, since I'm listening to it nearly every day while I work, but I don't think I'd have bothered if I was still at a job where the IT department would get cranky about the steady 64kbps bandwidth. And if you don't pay, the advertisements are beyond irritating: after about a week, I decided I could either pay or shut the thing off, but I couldn't tolerate another iteration of the same ads...

[cigfran-cg.livejournal.com]

Sounds as though you're happy with what you've found music-wise, but if you're still looking at other options, may I point you to slacker.com? For me, their "build your own" stations have proved far more satisfying than Pandora's. I've built four so far, and listen almost non-stop. On the other hand, if Pandora is extremely good at sussing out your preferences based on your seeds, I guess there's no reason for you to switch. I just couldn't seem to get things synched with their algorithm.
BTW, slacker also has a fair selection of pre-built stations.