Pandora One Reviews

Cost: $36 dollars annually as of April 2010

Website: http://www.pandora.com

You may have heard of Pandora, a streaming internet radio service that got its beginnings in 2000 as the "Music Genome Project." Long story short, Pandora is a cross between streaming custom playlists tailored to you and standard internet radio.

Basically the service works by asking you to enter a favorite band, artist , or song title to create a station. The system then creates a station based around the entered song or artist. According to Pandora, the genome project looks at various aspects of a song ranging from genre type and similar artists to tempo and song structure in addition to other criteria.

Songs then play one by one and allow you the ability to thumbs up or thumbs down a song. You can rename stations, add variety to a station, and create new stations. In theory the software will serve up both music you've heard before and music you may have never heard based around the initial band or song title you entered for a station.

Pandora One is the "premium" version of Pandora. The basic service is ad based and free to use. For a lot of users upgrading may not seem worth it; this review will give you a better idea as to if Pandora One is for you.

Both the free version and paid version are available on a variety of smartphone platforms ranging from Windows Mobile and the iPhone to Google Android and Palm OS.

Music quality:

The paid Pandora One quality is 192 kbps as of April 2010 and could become higher in the future. According to Pandora this is on the higher end of streaming internet audio. The free version's audio quality is quite a bit lower.

Software and layout:

The free version is available only through the Pandora website, you must have a browser window open to Pandora.com. There is no customization to the look of the website and advertisments coat the background and appear in between every few album covers.

Pandora One removes all visual ads and audio ads from the software. In addition Pandora One users can use a "pop out" player through the website. In addition a download of Pandora's desktop player is available; its look and controls are similar to the Pandora iPhone app allowing you to change settings, stations, as well as view currently playing songs and album art without opening a web browser (but internet is still needed). This downloadable player also puts up a small notification icon in the top of your screen whenever a new song name comes up.

You also have the option to change the background of the website when logged in, a small difference but still something additional.

Listening limits/skip limits:

On the free Pandora account you are limited to 40 hours a month of listening. After 40 hours you are asked to pay either $1 to listen unlimited for rest of month, pay $36 for annual subscription, or wait until the first of the month. On Pandora One you get unlimited monthly listening.

Due to licensing Pandora says you still can only skip up to 6 songs per hour on any one station which is the same as the free version. This is one of the biggest downsides to Pandora in general.

However the system will play 5 hours of commercial free music to Pandora One users before timing out and asking you to confirm you are still listening. Free listeners must thumb up/down, hit next, change stations, or click somewhere in the Pandora window every hour to avoid timing out.

Ads:

As mentioned Pandora One removes all visual ads and removes all audio ads. This is one key benefit to the paid subscription.

Connections:

You'll want high speed internet to access Pandora. The server connects quickly and there is rarely any audio dropouts or website time outs. The downloadable application can use a lot of memory at times. Those using Pandora on a mobile phone should be aware it uses a lot of resources and battery power. If you don't have an unlimited data/internet plan on your phone, forget it or you'll rack up a very large data usage bill. Pandora actually warns about this in advance.

Compared to other online services:

Both free Pandora and Pandora one operate around the idea that an algorithm determines what songs play and when based on your thumbs up/downing of songs and based on the "seed" bands (bands you enter when first making a station).

Competitors vary offering what would be considering radio (just online) with commericals and no choice of what is next, besides choosing the genre or station style like Pandora. Some such as Rhapsody and Napster offer paid subscriptions allowing you to listen to songs on demand or create custom playlists. Pandora does not let you do this.

Is Pandora One worth the expense?

For a few dollars a month you get unlimited listening, really high audio quality for internet audio, and a chance to discover music you never knew you liked. If anything you could reason the few dollars a month is like a donation to Pandora for developing the Music Genome Project.

For casual users or those who doubt they will often go over 40 hours a month of listening, the free version is fine if you don't mind ads and don't need a stand alone player. For heavy users the low cost is basically like a donation for unlimited streaming music.

Compared to competitors some may argue that Pandora and Pandora One aren't worth it because you can't listen to songs on demand or create set playlists. But that is part of the beauty of Pandora, you don't know what'll play next but chances are it'll be something you'll enjoy. The design of Pandora is that of a program that analyzes songs and listening styles and creates playlists that may surprise you with old favorites and new favorites. You might be surprised what Pandora plays for you next...