Welcome to Tanner's Tips!
This post is dedicated to all the great features that Pandora has to offer. Each week I'll be talking about and breaking down a Pandora feature in detail. Some of you may be using these features every day and others maybe not so much. My goal is to introduce something new and fun to your Pandora experience. Thanks for listening! 🎧
If you have a support question, please visit our Support Forum and choose the board that best suits your question. If you'd like to submit a feature request , please visit our Feature Request board.
CREATING, EDITING, ADDING VARIETY & MORE!
- Devices: Desktop / Web
- Subscription: Free (Ad-supported), Plus, Premium (individual), Premium Family
Today’s tip is about creating, editing and deleting stations for web users. You can do this on other devices like mobile, but we’ll get to those down the line. For everyone that uses Pandora on a computer, this is for you. 💻
NOTE: Pandora is not optimized for use on mobile browser. If you visit www.pandora.com on a mobile or tablet browser, you’ll be redirected to listen in app
HOW TO CREATE A STATION ON WEB
- In the Search bar at the top of the screen, enter an artist, song, composer or genre.
- Click on the appropriate search results (Helpful tip: Filter your results by Station) to go to the station ‘Backstage page’
- Click on Start Station to begin your station
Remember from last week’s tip, Tip #2 Premium Session, if you press play, meaning you’d like to listen to the song or album AND you are a Free or Plus subscriber, you’ll be asked to watch a short video advertisement before being able to listen to on-demand content. Plus subscribers, remember, this still applies to you because you’re listening to on-demand content.
You can also use Browse to view station and playlist suggestions picked just for you. You can find Browse next to My Collection on the home screen of our website
ADD VARIETY TO YOUR STATION ON WEB
Adding variety to your station is a great way to introduce a wider range of music to your station based on each of the artist or song "seeds" you add.
Adding variety to a station doesn't narrow the song pool that Pandora chooses from, nor does it increase your chances of hearing a particular song or artist. Rather, it opens up your station to a lot of variety. Each seed you add will inspire hundreds of other songs, so a little variety goes a long way. As a general rule, stations seem to work best with no more than 3-4 seeds added.
If you start to hear some undesirable matches, use Thumbs to help direct the station or try changing up the variety you've added.
Additionally, you won't be able to Add Variety to your Thumbprint Radio, or to Genre Stations.
Genre stations, like "Today's Hits" or "Classic Rock," are stations curated by Pandora, and behave differently than personalized stations. Since adding seeds will most likely inspire music outside of the intended genre and change the listening experience on these stations, you won't be able to add variety.
If you like a genre station and want to add variety, I recommend you create a new station based on a song you've heard on that station.
That said, when listening from a computer, mobile device or the Sonos app, you can access Pandora Modes (See Tip #1 Pandora Modes) to further customize your station experience.
Steps to Add Variety:
- Go to My Collection. (Pandora Premium account holders may want to filter their collection by Stations for an easier view.)
- Click on the title of the station you'd like to edit to go to its "backstage page"
- Click the ellipsis to the right of the play button to reveal an additional menu, and select Edit Station.
- To add or remove variety (station seeds): Scroll down to the Station Created From section.
To add variety, click + Add Variety, enter the artist or track you'd like to add, then click on the (+) sign to add that artist or song to your station. To remove variety, hover over the desired seed and select Delete. Remember: you cannot add variety to Genre Stations. If you don’t the see a way to add variety to the station, it’s probably a genre station.
- To add or remove variety (station seeds): Scroll down to the Station Created From section.
TO EDIT YOUR STATION ON WEB:
Hearing out of place tracks or maybe your station is playing content that you're not into? Maybe you thumbed down the wrong track or accidentally thumbed up a song you didn't like. You can always edit your thumbs. This is often the best place to start if you're hearing out of place content. Pandora stations adapt with every song to try to find the right music for you. It does this by using a combination of the detailed information in the Music Genome Project, the station seeds and Thumbs feedback you have given along with feedback given by other listeners under similar conditions. Removing thumbs from your Thumbs Up or Down can help adjust the sound on your station.
Here's how to edit your station:
- Go to My Collection. (Pandora Premium account holders may want to filter their collection by Stations for an easier view.)
- Click on the title of the station you'd like to edit to go to its "backstage page."
- Click the ellipsis to the right of the play button to reveal an additional menu, and select Edit Station.
- To view your thumbed tracks: Scroll down to the Thumb History section of the station's page. By default, this section will show your Thumbed-Up tracks first. If you'd like to see your Thumbs Down, click on the Thumbs Down icon.
- To delete a Thumbed track: Roll your cursor over the name of the track to reveal a hidden menu (or click the ellipsis if you are a Pandora Premium subscriber). As before, select Delete to remove that thumb from your station.
- To view your thumbed tracks: Scroll down to the Thumb History section of the station's page. By default, this section will show your Thumbed-Up tracks first. If you'd like to see your Thumbs Down, click on the Thumbs Down icon.
TO DELETE STATIONS ON WEB
Accidentally added a station or maybe you're just over it. 🙅🏻♀️ Here are steps on how to delete a station.
- Click My Collection.
- Hover over the album art of the station you want to delete.
- Click the ellipsis (three dots), then select Remove from your collection.
Remember: You cannot edit or delete individual stations while in Now Playing or Shuffle mode.
AND MORE...
HOW TO RECREATE A STATION YOU DELETED
To recreate a deleted station, simply create a new station from the SAME song or artist you'd originally used to create the station with. That will bring your deleted station back with all of its thumb ratings intact.
START OVER? IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A "FRESH" VERSION OF A STATION THAT YOU DELETED
Try creating a new station based on a few of your favorite songs from that artist. Remember using the same seed will only bring back the original station. If you were unhappy with the way your artist-based station turned out, creating a station based on some of that artist's songs is a great way to give it another try.
Remember that you can always edit your station (using the steps above) to increase the variety of your current station.
STATION KEEPS COMING BACK? STOP A DELETED STATION FROM RETURNING
If you've deleted a station from your computer and it seems to keep returning, here are a view things to check out:
You may need to check the bookmark that you use to access Pandora. It should ONLY be: https://www.pandora.com. If there is anything added onto to it (e.g., https://www.pandora.com/genre/new-pop), then erase that.
After updating your bookmark, try loading Pandora again to confirm that your deleted station is gone.
