Comments on: … is pandora?

by: Jim Withington

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 14:14:50 +0000

Hey dude, I’ve got invitations for a similar site. I’ll send you one. I’ve found that those kinds of services do turn me on to things that I don’t already listen to, but that by and large, they eat too much RAM to not be annoying.

by: Mike B

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:57:03 +0000

Yeah I used to use Pandora until that happened.

by: fanboi

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 13:59:13 +0000

What is Pandora…?not available to me…those copyright constraints?

Dear Pandora Visitor,

We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for most listeners located outside of the U.S. We will continue to work diligently to realize the vision of a truly global Pandora, but for the time being we are required to restrict its use. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.

by: Nate

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 09:11:53 +0000

hi Mikhail,
“Coercion of taste” is a really good phrase. Several of my favorite bands and albums I didn’t like initially. This happened several times in a row when I was first getting really into music - I bought something on a recommendation or bought an other record by a band where I already had one. It was music that to me sounded very confrontational and strange. I happened so much that I ended up setting myself a rule that I had to listen to everything three times before deciding for sure if I liked it. Often on the third time stuff had grown on me. (Not always, though. I really don’t like the influential punk band Crass and I really don’t like Ani DiFranco, as much as I’ve tried.)

I’m not up on terms either, I found the term by looking up stuff on wikipedia. It’s all kind of silly, term-wise, and often - with both really heavy music and with electronic stuff - the subgenre microdistinctions are too fine-grained for me to notice the differences.

by: Mikhail Emelianov

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 04:23:36 +0000

Nate, i think Pandora is indeed good for that kind of “research” - i regularly clean my place or do something mindless to Pandora but as i mentioned above it quickly runs out of options, and i have more of a “who else is not obscure enough that i think they would have?” - so it’s less of a discovery than a kind of self-congradulatory “oh yes, i knew you were going to go there” reaction which isn’t so good for discovering. as for recommending music, i honestly wouldn’t know where to even begin - “mathcore” you mention is i believe a kind of a blanket term for all kinds of nice stuff from heavy and disturbing to spooky and spacey (but again, i think, “math-” prefix is just a “new” way to refer to syncopation and rhythmic instability) - i personally am not very hip on the recent terminology and mostly just listen and decide, not necessarily “like” or “don’t like” but something like “interesting, worth another listen” and “will listen to this until die from hunger” kind of stuff.

also i believe in a sort of musical education that involves a lot of “coercion of taste” as in “i know you don’t like it, but you will because this is good music, you’re just not there yet” - because that’s how i got my education

by: Nate

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 01:22:53 +0000

Mikhail - recommend me some music! (Please.) I’ll get back to you with more specifics of the elements of the music genome that I prefer. I’ve been using a combo of Pandora and Wikipedia the past few days to find music that sounds like music I like, some of which I like very much and some of which I like quite a bit but not enough to want to buy. For instance, I followed the wikipedia links for “mathcore” to find all this good heavy dissonant music. I think of it as a sort of a helping hand, I suppose. It’s also nice for doing things around the apartment - I can put on one of the stations and hear blips and beeps and awkwardness or put on the other to hear blast beats and roaring while I do dishes. I also have one of old hard rock that I like very much, like AC/DC. Unfortunately I pretty regularly run back to the computer to be like “ooh what was that, I like that” and to click thumbs up.

Fanboi - thanks, you’re kind. I’ll check out Last and the link in the morning (my wife’s asleep and our apartment is small and I’m not sure where my headphones are just now). Thanks as well for the kind words on the edufactory thing.

take care,
Nate

by: fanboi

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 22:50:27 +0000

There’s also last fm http://www.last.fm/. Like Pandora, I guess, but bigger and slicker (not that that’s bad). But too bad they were bought up by CBS in May.

Anyway, here’s a pretty song (do you like the Frames?)http://www.indies.eu/mp3/Glen_Hansard_Swell_Season.mp3
Maybe not what you were looking for, but maybe something new. Or not…

Really enjoyed your post on the edufactory. Been quoting it.

by: Mikhail Emelianov

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 14:14:11 +0000

one thing about Pandora that i don’t like is the fact that they present it as if they can play anything, but due to some very strict copyright rules they only play stuff that they are somehow licensed to play so in addition to “suggesting” rather strange stuff they also cannot play certain tunes even if they will play tunes that are like the one you want - it becomes more obvious, i think, with more complex types of (electronic) music like certain types of IDM or very modern (classical) music - type, for example, “alfred schnittke” and you’ll get a note about why they can’t play any of his music and then you’ll hear the same two-three CDs they have a license to play… plus the whole “music genome project” goes against everything i believe music to be, a kind of “analytics of music” that i detest: oh you like this? you must like this then!