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I found it interesting that they omitted two very obvious alternatives (Pandora and Slacker Radio). An overt snub, or simply no point in naming two of the most

I found it interesting that they omitted two very obvious alternatives (Pandora and Slacker Radio). An overt snub, or simply no point in naming two of the most well known services?

aidos 12y ago
I think Pandora is US only, certainly not available in the UK. Which is a shame, because it was brilliant about 10 years ago when I was allowed to listen to it. Maybe that's one of the reasons it wasn't listed?
- morganvachon 12y ago
  It's not so great these days, at least in the free version. Ads every other song, sometimes more ads than songs in a given hour, and (at least on my phone) it's a battery hog. I prefer Slacker.
mikeash 12y ago
Pandora doesn't provide the same service. They purely do "radio" and don't let you make playlists or play specific songs. I can't explain Slacker's omission though.
- morganvachon 12y ago
  I thought Pandora offered playlists in their paid tier? I've never paid for it so I don't know the details of their full service.
  - mikeash 12y ago
    Their paid service just removes ads, and adds some minor enhancements like allowing more skips.
    - morganvachon 12y ago
      >allowing more skips Hmm, I'd think if I'm paying for the service I could skip as many times as I want. Thanks for the info!
      - mikeash 12y ago
        Yeah, you'd think.... Pandora is a weird service. They pay less for their music in exchange for putting restrictions on it that make it less likely to substitute for music purchases. It really is supposed to just be radio, and they do things like limit skips so that you can't just skip ahead until you get to the exact song you want to listen to. The music companies want you to still go out and buy the album if you want to do that. On the other hand, Pandora is cheaper, at $5/month versus, for example, $10/month for Spotify. Personally, I wish I could get Pandora's selection algorithm's into Spotify and have the best of both worlds.

I found it interesting that they omitted two very obvious alternatives (Pandora and Slacker Radio). An overt snub, or simply no point in naming two of the most well known services?

aidos 12y ago

I think Pandora is US only, certainly not available in the UK. Which is a shame, because it was brilliant about 10 years ago when I was allowed to listen to it. Maybe that's one of the reasons it wasn't listed?

morganvachon 12y ago
It's not so great these days, at least in the free version. Ads every other song, sometimes more ads than songs in a given hour, and (at least on my phone) it's a battery hog. I prefer Slacker.

mikeash 12y ago

Pandora doesn't provide the same service. They purely do "radio" and don't let you make playlists or play specific songs. I can't explain Slacker's omission though.

morganvachon 12y ago
I thought Pandora offered playlists in their paid tier? I've never paid for it so I don't know the details of their full service.
- mikeash 12y ago
  Their paid service just removes ads, and adds some minor enhancements like allowing more skips.
  - morganvachon 12y ago
    >allowing more skips Hmm, I'd think if I'm paying for the service I could skip as many times as I want. Thanks for the info!
    - mikeash 12y ago
      Yeah, you'd think.... Pandora is a weird service. They pay less for their music in exchange for putting restrictions on it that make it less likely to substitute for music purchases. It really is supposed to just be radio, and they do things like limit skips so that you can't just skip ahead until you get to the exact song you want to listen to. The music companies want you to still go out and buy the album if you want to do that. On the other hand, Pandora is cheaper, at $5/month versus, for example, $10/month for Spotify. Personally, I wish I could get Pandora's selection algorithm's into Spotify and have the best of both worlds.