Blocking certain genre from station

[Jh81]

It seems like Pandora fundamentally cannot adjust my stations to give me the music I want. Normally it doesn't bother me, but this one was so specific it's really getting on my nerves. I have a meditation radio. It plays every morning throughout all speakers in the house. I just want one thing, no wooden flute music. I've been down voting wooden flute music for weeks and I just keep getting wooden flute music.

Are down votes not as effective as up votes? Or do you just accept that Pandora is going to give you whatever it wants regardless of how you vote? Are any other services better at tailoring to your tastes?

Moderator Edit: Edited title for clarity

[AdamPandora · Accepted solution]

@Jh81 We don't currently have the option to filter out certain genres such as wooden flute music on Pandora stations.

You can vote for this existing feature request here.

In the meantime, if you continue to Thumb Down these tracks, you will not hear them again on the station you're listening to. As always, you should use your Thumb ratings freely to tell Pandora what you want and don't want to hear.

Additionally, you may want to look into Pandora Premium if you are looking for more control in your listening sessions.

With Pandora Premium, you have the ability to pick and choose what songs you want to listen to on demand. You also have the ability to create customized playlists - so if you were to create a Meditation playlist, you'd be able to pick and choose specific songs you want added to it.

You can learn more about Pandora Premium here.

Hope this helps!

[Jh81]

I don't understand this lack of functionality. Pandora is supposed to employ ai and machine learning through its music genome project which should categorize music by hundreds of different characteristics. It's supposed to understand my music tastes better than I do. I've been down voting wooden flute music for weeks and I'm still getting it. Sounds like they have overstated their technical capabilities. This is the main reason I haven't converted to a paid subscriber; I don't trust their product.

[AdamPandora]

I definitely understand your frustration, @Jh81.

I've made sure to pass your feedback along to our engineering team.

We appreciate you sharing your thoughts - this type of information is very helpful as we work to improve our services for everyone.

Thanks for being a part of the Community! 

[Carmenpet]

Mine is giving me completely different Genres after only half an hour of listening and I can't change it back

[AdamPandora]

@Carmenpet The next time this happens, please give the out of place track that plays a thumbs down and write us back with the following:

• The name of the station you were listening to:
• The date/time the out of place track(s) played
  
• The name(s) of the out of place artist(s) on the station.
  
• The title(s) of the out of place track(s) that played.
  
• Were you able to give the out of place track(s) a Thumbs down?
  
• Were you listening using a Pandora Mode like Crowd Faves, Discovery or Deep Cuts?

Also if possible, please grab a screenshot of the out of place track that plays, and send that in a reply to this message.

Thanks for the help!

[jpierce80]

I am having a similar issue either with genres on a classical music station.  My guess is that Pandora considers stringed instruments as similar, and includes hard rock and guitar shredding on a Mozart station.

For example, the station currently has 80 thumbs up songs and 40 thumbs down.

A sample of thumbs down songs are:

Thumbed Down Tracks

Cry for You (Remastered), Cry for You (Remastered, Andy Timmons Band, 6:54

Will My Screen Door Stop Neptune, Paul Gilbert, 4:18

Dragon Mistress, Marty Friedman, 3:41

Beast In A Box, Lynch Pilson, 4:10

Brand New Start (Album Version), Alter Bridge. 4:55

Frankenstein, Frankenstein, Gary Hoey, 2:44

Heaven Tonight, Yngwie Malmsteen, 4:06

Redneck Punk, Jackyl, 3:38

Stone Cold, Rainbow, 5:17

Fire in the Sky, Ozzy Osbourne, 6:24

Rock Bottom (2007 Remaster), UFO, 6:29

Down The Drain, Chickenfoot, 6:18

Don't Say No, XYZ, 4:31

For the Love of God, Steve Vai, 6:03

Soul Stealer, Badlands. 2:58

These were played on  a station that is tuned with the following:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Tárrega: Capricho árabe

Andrés Segovia

John Williams & London Symphony Orchestra

Tchaikovsky

Bedrich Smetana

Franz Joseph Haydn

Johann Strauss II

Leoncavallo: Pagliacci / Act 1 - "Recitar!...Vesti la giubba"

Luciano Pavarotti, The National Philharmonic Orchestra & Giuseppe Patanè

Sergey Rachmaninov

Antonio Vivaldi

Eine Kleine Nacht Musik

George Gershwin

Ludwig van Beethoven

Fryderyk Chopin

Le nozze di Figaro: Overture - Wiener Philharmoniker

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, 1st Movement

Johannes Brahms

Is there any way to limit the music to the classical genre?

[Jh81]

Since posting this I went to Spotify and actually started paying for it since that service was worth it to me. I uninstalled Pandora.

[johnburgs]

I think you have a "Seeds" function to add groups or types of music to your play list?

How hard would it be to add a "Weed Killer" feature to eliminate entire unwanted genres of noise?  I suspect that this feature would be VERY popular. Maybe even make it specific to an unwanted musician or group.  

The Thumbs Down function is basically useless.  So the customer is stuck with listening to the unwanted trash forced upon them by the mindless "genome".

I'm sure that many of your customers intensely dislike the music I listen to, and they shouldn't have to even know it exists, and Pandora certainly shouldn't force my music onto them if they don't want it.

Pandora was established on the concept that the listener could curate and develop their own music stations to fit their tastes and preferences.  But in reality this is a myth, with the "genome" constantly shoving garbage (subjectively speaking) on you that you don't want to hear, much less hear over and over and over and over and over again.

A "Weed Killer" function is mandatory, if you want to "cultivate" your listener crop.