Pandora

Posted by The Grumpy One

So as I was thinking of what to do for my next post, I started to think what gadget, or app, or product would I be the most upset if I didn’t have it for my day to day routine.  I was going to go the easy route and say my Smart Phone, but that would actually be a very long post.  So I thought what App has “changed my life” and instantly I thought of “Pandora.”

Now I know Pandora has been around for a while, and you may think you know about it (I recently had a conversation with my sister where she “Knew” and she was WRONG!!!), but unless you use it… you DON’T KNOW and you too are WRONG. Let me explain… I will use the “Dwight Schrute method of explanation”…

FACT: Pandora is an app for your phone; a webpage you can access from your computer, available on certain TV services like TIVO, and now comes in some new cars.

FACT: Pandora is FREE…however they do have a “premium” membership that costs money (however I am more than happy with the free version.) and if you use it on your phone, it takes up a bit of your data plan.

FACT: I have personally tried Pandora, I heart radio, and slacker radio…and Pandora is the BEST BY FAR!!!

This is what you do, either download the app on your smart phone, or if you are using your computer go to www.pandora.com

Create a free account, if you want to, you can upgrade later. And now your life will be changed…

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Unlike most of these programs, you create your own stations.  You don’t listen to actual radio stations, you create a personalized station. And you can create unlimited ones for what mood you are in (right now I have close to 100 stations.)

Step 1. Make a station

Type in a Music Group, or Singer, or Music Genre, or Song Title, or comedian, or type of comedy and once you hit o.k, it will make a new station, and so if I am looking for “The Rolling Stones,” it will create a station called “Rolling Stones Radio.”

Step 2. Listen to music

It will play a song. You either hit “thumbs up” if you like it, “thumbs down” if you hate it, “skip it” if you are just not in the mood for it right now, or you can just listen and give no feedback.

Whatever feedback you give, it will start creating the perfect station for you.  If you give it a “thumbs up” you will probably hear that song again in the future or something by that artist again.  If you give it a “thumbs down” it will immediately stop the song, go to another song, and you will probably never hear it again on that station, and now they know you don’t like that song. (Note…for the free version, you only get 5 skips or “thumbs downs” per station, per hour. WAY TO CHEAT THE SYSTEM… if you run out of skips and really hate the song playing, I just switch to another station for a second, and switch back to the station I was listening to and it will give you a new song.)

Step 3. Discover new music.

Based on what you like, they will select music from artists like the ones you like, and sometimes it will be from groups that you have never heard of but you wonder why you have never heard of them before.   From the song menu you can click on the song and find out more info about the group…

Or add it to your favorites list, or even buy the song or cd.  Or you can do what I do… and create a new Pandora station just for that group. 

Step 4.  Listen wherever you are. 

So your account works on anything you log in to.  So the stations I make on my phone, transfer over to my computer if I log on my computer, or tablet, or whatever.  So if I am doing dishes on a Sunday, I can bring my tablet into the kitchen, and just listen there, and all my “Thumbs up data” will transfer to my phone account when I listen to it on my phone.

WHY CAN I NOT LIVE WITHOUT IT?

I currently live in Hawaii.  And one of the best kept hidden secrets about Hawaii, is they have the worst traffic in the United States. (I forget what poll it was, but they actually named Oahu, Hawaii number 1 for worst traffic this year.) This is a sample of my drive home every day.

If you zoom in and look above the car in front of me, you will see the miles of stopped cars. So even though I live a little more than 20 miles away from my office, I am in my car for about 2-3 hours a day depending on if there are any accidents that day.  This problem is amplified by the fact that the radio in Hawaii is HORRIBLE!!! Not a bad signal, just bad quality.  So my fix… I found out that there is a av jack in my car that I can plug my phone into. Luckily I have unlimited data on my phone, because I average about 12 hours worth of listening to Pandora a week.

VARIETY

All at a touch of a button I can switch between country, rock, showtunes, comedy, and yes I even have a 90’s rock station.

Also for my kids, I have a toddler tunes station, a Disney station, and a lullaby station that I will play from my phone when I am trying to calm them to sleep.

As for REALLY COOL STATIONS, I just found out that they have all the crazy songs you can get on itunes so I have a “Epic Rap Battles of History” station, and “Bed Intruder Autotune” station, and a few other weird but funny stations if I am in that kind of mood.

As of right now I think it’s the best FREE music program out there.

What do you think? Do you use PANDORA? Did this post make you try it and now you want to thank me? Do you have another APP you use that I should check out? Post in the comments.