How seeds work with Artist Only Mode

[MusicIsForever]

Under "Now playing,"I love the Artist Only button. However, I want to have an additional Seeds Only button where only the station seeds of a station are played.

Moderator Edit: Edited title for clarity

[TannerPandora]

Hi @MusicIsForever  if you select 'Artist Only' in Modes, it should play only songs from the artist headlining your station, this will include any seeds added to the stations.

Is that what you mean by Seeds Only?

[MusicIsForever]

I'm not sure. For example, I have made seeds for my Dream Theater Station, a station that I already love, but when I do Artist only it doesn't seem to want to play my music that where a Dream Theater singer has made a guest appearance, such as in the band Fates Warning, and Ayreon. These songs have been seeded, but they don't seem to play using the Artist Only button. For example, those seeds are there because I want to listen to the artist James LaBrie of Dream Theater. I could be wrong and that everything will play. I am also very happy to see other James LaBrie side projects bands play. I try to remember what I give thumbs up, but I may be forgetting, or maybe I simply haven't waited long enough, as the footprint Dream Theater related musicians have made is massive. I talk about this in other ideas of mine, which would allow users to keep better track of what they have listened to and what they have thumbed. Enabling me to keep track more easily would help me manage stations better.

[TannerPandora · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the follow up @MusicIsForever.

I took a peak at your 'Dream Theater Station' and you have quite a bit of seeds added. Adding this much variety to a station doesn't narrow the type of music that plays, instead, the song pool this will expand. It might be the reason why you may not be hearing the songs you're expecting even while in Artist Only mode. 

If you're open to it, I would recommend creating another station based on the artist or song you'd like to hear more of.  Or, try removing some of the current seeds to help further shape the sound you'd like to hear. 

As a general rule, stations seem to work best with no more than 3-4 seeds added.

++

Hey @MusicIsForever, just wanted you to know I moved your post to My Collection for now. Let me know if those suggestions helped. 

[MusicIsForever]

That is not the answer I would have expected because some of my stations have hundreds of seeds. I kept adding new seeds because it wasn't mixing in my seeds. Even using the Deep Cuts function still produced songs that I wanted to hear less of, so lately what I had been using was the "I'm tired of this button" for maybe 50 or so songs and eventually I have been able to get a much better mix by doing that. 

I'm giving it a try. I reduced the seeds to only 14 artists and no songs, but I want to hear all those artists because at some time in their career each contains 1 or more musicians that have played in Dream Theater. I feel like the best way Pandora could help is through adding the musicians I want to listen to instead of Artists and Songs. That would limit the list to 9 seeds instead of my truncated list of 14, which deleted Shadow Gallery, Fates Warning, and Ayreon, and really that is just the beginning to the amount of other Artists and Songs they appear on. Glad you stopped me because I was still considering the Songs part and much of the band part to be a very unfinished list of seeds.

[MusicIsForever]

I have done some work and trimming. Is there a better way to go about doing this to get a better result? I haven't even listened, but it seems like you know what to do to get a better mix, so that is why I'm asking.

I have made additional changes to my Dream Theater station. I got rid of Frameshift, and Planet X. Hopefully, just liking James LaBrie will give my artist search access to Frameshift, the same for Derek Sherinian and Planet X. I also added Sons of Apollo which has Derek Sherinian, and Mike Portnoy, who is another former member of Dream Theater, and is member of the recently added Winery Dogs. I added Liquid Trio Experiment that has 2 Dream Theater members, and hopefully that will mean I won’t have to seed Liquid Tension Experiment, which is another similar Dream Theater band. I also added Platypus which has Derek Sherinian and John Myung, Dream Theater’s bassist, and hopefully that will give me access to the similar band The Jelly Jam, which also has John Myung and very similar sound. I also added 1 song off 6 live Dream Theater albums to give Pandora the idea that I prefer to listen to Dream Theater live albums, because I have long listened to their studio work. Hearing the same old same old studio work is not what I want for the most part, and it does seem like Pandora is catching on to that. Also, if I hear a non-Dream Theater band such as Mr. Big, which has the bassist of Sons of Apollo, and The Winery Dogs; I don’t mind. The same is true for Fates Warning’s singer, who actually opted out of singing for the band, but does appear on OSI along with Mike Portnoy, which I have used as a seed. The same is true for Spock's Beard, whose singer appears on Transatlantic albums with Mike Portnoy. I am also pretty sure he sings on Chroma Key, a band which has Kevin Moore, who is a former Dream Theater keyboardist.

Is there anything I can do to get guest appearances though? I really want to hear songs off of Working Man, which is a Rush tribute album, Explorer’s Club, a Queen Tribute, John Petrucci’s solo album, many more, and of course Shadow Gallery, Ayreon, and Fates Warning.

As you can see I’m a Dream Theater junkie...lol! I’m in my 40s and have been listening to them since 8th grade.

[AdamPandora]

@MusicIsForever It looks like your account is currently upgraded to Pandora Premium.

With this level of service, you actually have the ability to pick and choose specific songs you want to listen to.

You can also create customized playlists that only include the songs you actually want to hear.

I recommend taking full advantage of your Premium subscription, and creating a customized playlist. That way, you won't need to spend time trying to craft a station to play the right music.

To create a new playlist from a mobile device:

To create a new playlist, go to My Collection.

My Collection shows album art for all of your recently played tracks, but also allows you to sort your "Added" content – whether that might be radio stations, albums or songs.

To add a playlist, filter your Added content by tapping the downward arrow (or "carat") which appears below the album art.

Select Playlist from the menu.

Next, tap + New Playlist. Enter a name for your playlist and tap Next. Finally, use the search bar to find your favorite songs or albums to add.

Keep in mind that you can also create new playlists from the Now Playing screen, or by searching for a particular track. Just tap the ellipsis (...) below the album art, and indicate whether you'd like to add the track to a new playlist or an existing one.

Once you've created a playlist, you can harness the power of Pandora to recommend additional music you might want to add.

To create a new playlist rom the web:

There are a number of ways to create playlists.

First, from your My Collection page, filter your collection by Playlists and select  + Create Playlist.

You can also do this from the Now Playing screen by clicking the ellipsis (three dots) below the album art to reveal a sub-menu. Hover over Add to Playlist and select New Playlist.

Finally, you can create a playlist from most songs or albums by clicking that ellipsis as well.

Hope this helps! 😎

[MusicIsForever]

Essentially, what I want is a station that operates like a playlist, but with shuffle.

I want to be able to keep track of my listening hours first and I really have no desire to listen to the songs in the same order.

[AdamPandora]

@MusicIsForever You do have the option of shuffling customized playlists after they are created.

I recommend utilizing that option when creating a new playlist - that way you won't have to listen to the playlist in the same order every time.

Hope this helps clarify. 

[MusicIsForever]

The playlist is not a solution. I don't want to spend the time entering 1,000+ songs which would probably take enough time that by then Pandora will have come up with a better solution such as adding all of an artists songs or entry of entire albums.