Last night, Pandora and I reunited and went through 28 songs in just about 2 hours. 18 of the songs I heard were great recommendations. Many of which I had previously given a "thumbs up" so it's safe to assume that these songs are my "favs"!! I started at 11:30pm and my mood initially was extremely tired but I wanted to work just a little longer and thought Pandora's assistance could be valuable in helping me make it through the next few hours. So, I played a station that I previously created for one of my favorite artists..John Legend and the first five songs recommended were perfect!! Actually, the next song wasn't a bad selection either per say. I had previously given the songs a thumbs up but I just wasn't in the mood to hear it last night. 8 of the next 10 recommended were again, great selections!!! And then, it happened, the next four were just not what I wanted to hear...at all -( On the fourth song, I was going to call it an evening, figuring Pandora had given me the best I could ask for and maybe I was pushing my luck a little thinking we could continue like that for another hour....but something said try one more!! So i obliged and made it through 7 more songs. Five of which were dead-on!! Wanting to end my session on a plesant note and given the fact that I had to get up for work in less than 6 hours, I decided to call it a night! 18 out of 24 isnt all that bad but we definitely still have opportunities for improvement.
I want to give Lucia, a Pandora representative, a big THANK YOU. She provided several tips via blog comments that I will implement during future sessions in hopes of taking advantage of all Pandora has to offer!!
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6 comments:
Thanks for the shout-out, Remi. :)
Any time you have questions or comments, email me! I'm happy to help.
One thing you may want to keep in mind: songs are played in set of 15 minutes on Pandora stations. So if you hear 4 songs in a row that don't fit your idea of what that station should be, the next set might be much better!
(and a thumbs down to any of the songs will help correct the direction the station is going in.)
Have fun!
Lucia, from Pandora
this is a question directed @ Remi and Lucia ... pandora has this 'guide us' tab ... this tab gives additional options to direct the station in the right direction. exaple: 'i want to add more music like this to the station' ... how are these options any different from the 'thumbs up/down' options ??? and if they are different ... which are more effective ? the reason i ask this question - it doesnt make sense to have so many alternatives to rate music in the interface, unless each of them has a important and distinct role to play in generating recommendations
Hi Ajeet -
Thanks for your question.
When you use the "add more music" option, you're adding a song or artist as a "seed" for the station.
Using a song or artist as a seed is a lot more powerful than just a thumbs up.
I would think of seeding as setting up the basic building blocks of a station.
Giving a song a thumbs up will increase the likelihood that it will play in your station, and guide the station in a particular direction, but it's roughly 4x less powerful than a seed.
The other major difference of course, is that with thumbs you have to wait for the song to come up to give the feedback, whereas you can add a new seed to a station at any time, even while you're listening to a different station.
I hope that helps!
Lucia, from Pandora
Hey Lucia,
Thank you for your response. Using the guide us tab definately works better than using the thumbs up/down option !!!
Another question (i have a ton of them) - From what i understand, Pandora recommends music by the analyzing the various components within a music track. So if i were to chose the track 'cochise' by audioslave as a seed, pandora would find all music that has similar charateristics to cochise.
Does the same concept apply to artists too? when i add an artist as a seed to my station, does pandora analyze that artist's music composition charateristics (from the artist's collective catalog of music listings)?
to summarize my query ... does the role of a music track as a seed differ from that of an artist ? if so, how?
Hi Ajeet (and Remi!)
Yes indeed, you are correct. A station created from a song can be quite different from a station created from an artist name.
The artist station is based on all of the songs we've studied musically in that artist's repertoire.
The song station is *only* based on that one song's musical features.
So a Beatles station will be quite different, and much more diverse, than a station based only on "Let It Be," as the Beatles' full repertoire is so varied in style.
In this case, the song station will be much more specific, musically.
I'm glad I can help with your questions! (and if either of you ever want to email me directly, feel free: lucia at pandora dot com)
Lucia, @ Pandora
Thanks Lucia! I apologize for all the cross-posting Remi.
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