I've been quite enthralled with Pandora, too. Of course, not for the last couple days 'cause surgery time etc. But, out of curiosity, how did you seed your station? I tried just doing one with Within Temptation, and that brought me all the bands whose names typically get thrown around at femme metal boards. Which is nice because I get to see if I like any more of them (so I'm leaving that station the way it is), but not so nice because I don't like most of them. But I figure the more bands I seed into a station, the better it gets at predicting?
Oh! Okay, on the sidebar where it says "Within Temptation Radio", there should be a little grey scroll arrow. Left-click it and some options will appear.
Select "Add Variety to this Station". Then, type in another artist you like in a similar field of music (off the top of my head, for yours, Kamelot and Muse would be good choices, because they're rock songs with 'big sound'--chanting, classical instruments or piano, etc.--and male vocals).
For instance, "Juno Reactor" started pumping out things that were more consistently to my taste after I added "The Crystal Method" and "Fatboy Slim".
The trick is not to tell it too many artists for any one sound (I did that with Splashdown, and can't figure out how to fix it. I may have to start over. XD)
Also, I suspect that every eigth song or so is a sponsored result. It is the only logical reason why, after an hour of dark, chunky mid-beat techno with Arabic hooks, I all of a sudden got "Holding Out for a Hero" by freaking FROU FROU. XD
Still, if that's all it takes to keep it free, that's not a bad trade-off, since I can skip it.
Splashdown probably netted you Frou Frou for real. People seem to think they're similar (don't ask me...), and I got that result, too.
It does spit out some really bizarre stuff occasionally, though, but I wouldn't consider the weird stuff it gives me to have been sponsored.
If you edit your station details, you can remove bands from it. Then it won't give you any new songs based on those artists, but it will keep spitting out any songs you gave a good rating to. You can also change your good/bad song lists if you do the edit thing.
I'm my usual yahoo address, but I've only really played with WT radio so far. I found a Lacuna Coil song I like. O_O
Actually, mine's weirder than that. WT radio plays, like, Nightwish and Evanescence and Lacuna Coil and that ilk for an hour or two, and then it plays like six totally random songs in a row, then goes back.
You've been through, uh, lots of songs...That may be causing the pattern to kitchen-sink you a bit. Adding artists solved a lot of the weirdness for me.
In the editing tree, there's an option somewhere to use just songs for seeds. I haven't tried that, but if you really like, say, This One Song by Theatre of Tragedy or Hungry Lucy or whoever, and hate all the rest of their stuff, it might work well/better/best.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2008-10-25 04:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-25 10:43 pm (UTC)Select "Add Variety to this Station". Then, type in another artist you like in a similar field of music (off the top of my head, for yours, Kamelot and Muse would be good choices, because they're rock songs with 'big sound'--chanting, classical instruments or piano, etc.--and male vocals).
For instance, "Juno Reactor" started pumping out things that were more consistently to my taste after I added "The Crystal Method" and "Fatboy Slim".
The trick is not to tell it too many artists for any one sound (I did that with Splashdown, and can't figure out how to fix it. I may have to start over. XD)
Also, I suspect that every eigth song or so is a sponsored result. It is the only logical reason why, after an hour of dark, chunky mid-beat techno with Arabic hooks, I all of a sudden got "Holding Out for a Hero" by freaking FROU FROU. XD
Still, if that's all it takes to keep it free, that's not a bad trade-off, since I can skip it.
no subject
Date: 2008-10-26 01:24 am (UTC)It does spit out some really bizarre stuff occasionally, though, but I wouldn't consider the weird stuff it gives me to have been sponsored.
If you edit your station details, you can remove bands from it. Then it won't give you any new songs based on those artists, but it will keep spitting out any songs you gave a good rating to. You can also change your good/bad song lists if you do the edit thing.
I'm my usual yahoo address, but I've only really played with WT radio so far. I found a Lacuna Coil song I like. O_O
no subject
Date: 2008-10-26 01:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-26 02:10 am (UTC)In the editing tree, there's an option somewhere to use just songs for seeds. I haven't tried that, but if you really like, say, This One Song by Theatre of Tragedy or Hungry Lucy or whoever, and hate all the rest of their stuff, it might work well/better/best.
no subject
Date: 2008-10-25 10:45 pm (UTC)shamelessly fawn sycophanticallyadd you. ^_~