Ideas: Improvements to Discovery Mode

[charlzm]

Discovery mode is my preferred mode of listening because my threshold of boredom for hearing the same songs over and over is pretty low.

However, I have noticed lately that something like 75% of the tracks Pandora is playing in my discovery station already have my thumbs up on them.  I have resorted to "I'm tired of this song" over and over.

Is there some way to tune this discovery algorithm so that it really does play songs or artists that aren't normally on my station?  Or a new mode of "no repeats"?

Moderator Edit: Changing title for clarity

[TannerPandora]

Hi @charlzm! 

Thanks for posting your feedback and idea for Discovery Mode!

[gregarioushop]

I've been having this issue with Discovery Mode too - there's not a whole lot of "discovery" going on. I've had to take a break from Pandora for a little while because the same stuff kept coming up, and being a student, studying all the time, it get's quite exhausting listening to the same stuff on what seems like repeat.

[charlzm]

Seriously!  I'll give ONE track from a band with a vast catalog a Thumbs up and then... I'll only hear that song from the band.

Example: I like the Canadian prog band Saga.  Pandora played one song by them (the most obvious choice: their best-known song - "On the Loose").  I "liked" it.

Every time Saga turns up in Discovery mode, it's the same song.  Saga has TWENTY-THREE full studio albums.  Well over 200 songs.  So why the same one over and over?

[trhkotj]

Yes, I have to say I have mixed feelings about all the new modes.  It seems that none of the options operate like the original Pandora algorithm, i.e., playing *songs* that are similar - first the station seed, and then the thumbed up ones on the station - regardless of the artist.   

I guess the closest now seems to be Discovery mode, *but* it only plays "artists you don't usually hear on this station", not songs similar to what's on the station.  Maybe you should split it into two modes:  discover similar songs and discover new artists.

Anyway, I want the old algorithm back.  I discovered a lot of good music that way, and the new algorithms seem more like dumbed down versions of the old algorithm. And, I suspect, the recent design choices have more to do with how much money Pandora makes than they do with satisfying the Pandora user.

[DJ_GothFvck]

Yeahhh...  I created a new station with a few dozen artists across a few somewhat related genres and the moment I started thumbing up tracks it started doubling the amount those artists came up. No thanks. How am I supposed to interact with anything else if I only hear four bands?

[bjonw]

Discovery mode is just as repetitive as the normal station.  The normal station cycles through the same songs far too often as it is, and then you switch to Discovery mode and it is about the same.  There is a huge issue with the lack of available music Pandora will play.  I've been trying to force it to play different songs by Snoozing (a button that is buried in a sub-menu when it shouldn't be), but that doesn't seem to work either.

[nathanevans5]

I want a tuning option that allows me to prioritize Crowd Faves that I haven't already thumbs up or down (obviously within the genre).  I want to discover more songs that would fit into the station, but Crowd Faves only plays stuff I've already thumbs up....I must like what most people like.

I suppose the other option is to allow me to set a max percent of songs I've already thumbs up on the main station.  That way I can decide how much I want to explore.

[rosebud512]

I agree with the above posters that say Discovery (and Deep Cuts) don't actually work as described -- so often, I just end up hearing more songs from the same old list of thirty or so that the app particularly likes playing.  It is pretty frustrating to expect new songs or new artists, and only get songs I've already thumbed up.  It seems like the more I thumb songs up, the less I get any variety -- shouldn't it be the opposite, where thumbing up something new opens to a new branch of artists or songs that are similar to the new song's features, in addition to the songs related to previously thumbed up tracks?

[brettasterling]

I have the same problem - I selected Discovery mode to hear new music.  Many times, I have to skip more than 10-20 songs in order to get a new one.

My recommendation would be that in Discovery mode, at MOST, Pandora only plays 1-5 thumbed up songs in an hour.  Otherwise, I'm not sure what value Discovery mode has.