Not hearing seeded artists added on station

[GStewart]

I am on Pandora station Carole King & James Taylor Radio. There is a feature to add variety which is needed. I activated it and added 5 or so other artists. There is also an edit feature that recommended that I edit the station title to reflect my added variety. I edited the title accordingly. The station description has changed, but the title: Carole King & James Taylor Radio has not. So far as Ican tell these artists have not been included on the station.

What's going on?

Thanks

Moderator Edit: Edited title for clarity, Removed personal info

[AdamPandora · Accepted solution]

@GStewart I created a new post for your message as you are experiencing a separate issue.

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, which can make for some undesirable matches. I would suggest editing this station to remove those extra seeds. 

To edit your stations on a computer, first make sure you're signed into your Pandora account. Then:

1. Click on the name of the station you'd like to edit. If the station is not available from your Now Playing page, click on the My Collection button first, sort your collection by Stations, and select the name of the station you'd like to edit. This will take you to a station details page which shows you information about your personalized station.
2. You can remove a station seed from your station by scrolling down to the Station Created From section. You can delete a particular seed by tapping the ellipsis (or three dots), or by hovering over it and selecting Delete.
3. To delete a Thumbed track, scroll down to the Thumb History section of this page. By default, this section will show your Thumbed up tracks first. If you'd like to see your Thumbed down tracks, click on the Thumbs down icon. Next, either select the ellipsis next to the Thumb or hover your cursor over the name of the track to reveal a hidden menu. As before, select Delete.

Keep in mind that you can create up to 250 separate stations, so you might find that Pandora works best if you create multiple stations with different artists or songs. From there, you can utilize our shuffle feature to hear a variety of musical styles in one listening session. Shuffle plays a one-song set from a random station that you've included in your mix and then moves onto another song (from a different station). This is significantly different from listening to a single Pandora station.

If you need help using or editing your Shuffle, let me know.

Thanks for being a part of the community! 🎶

[Trike17]

I have a station established base on a song. The station is fantastic and has tremendous potential except for one thing. There is one band that I added to to get more variety that never plays. I have added many bands/artists to this station and they all play except one. can anyone explain this?

[AdamPandora]

@Trike17 I moved your post to this thread since you have a similar question: Not hearing seeded artists added on station

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 even more variety.

Check out the accepted solution to this thread for more information.

This being said, I do see you are currently upgraded to Pandora Premium.

With this level of subscription, you have the option to create customized playlists where you can pick and choose the specific songs and artists you want to hear.

For instructions on how you can create new playlists, check out this thread: How to create a new playlist

Hope this helps! 🤝

[beakmaster3000]

I recently added an artist as a station seed to my station that I've listened to since 2013. Every other time that I've added a new station seed (whether it be a song or an artist), the station will add that artist's music into my rotation. 

This new artist seed has not played on my station at all since I added it (3-4  weeks ago). This must be a bug of some kind, because this was previously not an issue for me. Is there something that I can do to fix this?

[AdamPandora]

@beakmaster3000 I moved your post over to this existing thread: Not hearing seeded artists added on station

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, which can make for some undesirable matches.

Check out the accepted solution to this thread for more information around this. 

That said, you should be able to use Pandora Modes to customize your station experience when you're listening from a computer, mobile device or the Sonos app. You can pick different modes like Artist Only, which will play only tracks from the artist headlining your station (along with any additional artist seeds you've added).

Please keep in mind that Artist Only mode will only exist on relevant stations.

Hope this helps!

[beakmaster3000]

So the answer is that this isn't a bug, and that adding an artist as a seed for a station does not imply that the seeded artist will play on the station?

[AdamPandora]

That is correct, @beakmaster3000.

That being said, if your station has the Artist Only mode available, utilizing that feature will only play songs from the artist you created the station for, along with any additional seeds you added:

[beakmaster3000]

For the station in question (the one you screenshot above), I added the artist DragonForce as a seed, though I have not been hearing any of their music on the station. I then created a new station from DragonForce and have heard their music consistently on that station. How come I am able to hear music from DragonForce on this new station, but not from my original station? If this is the case, it there a way for me to move songs from the DragonForce station to the original station?

The picture below shows my attempt to add DragonForce as variety to my original station.

Thank you for your help, I appreciate your responses!

[AdamPandora]

@beakmaster3000 Unfortunately, there is no way of telling when, or how often a particular artist will play on any given station, so I am unable to give you a definitive answer as to why that artist is playing more on one station vs. the other.

That being said, if you would like to hear their music on demand, we do offer a solution through Pandora Premium subscriptions and complimentary sessions of Pandora Premium. This service combines our industry leading radio service with on-demand listening.

Use this link to learn more about upgrading. Alternatively, you can start a complimentary session simply by searching our library for a song or album, and clicking play. This will trigger a short advertisement, after which you can enjoy content on-demand.

Ad-supported Pandora and Pandora Plus are designed to introduce you to new music through the artists and songs that you already know and love. You can type in your favorite artist or song and music that is similar to your selection will play on your station.

While these Pandora stations will learn what you like and don't like based on Thumbs feedback, it's not possible to predict exactly which song will play next. Only Pandora Premium offers users that level of control.

Thanks for listening!

[rlsmith1956]

I added several new artists to my station but have yet to hear anything from any of them. How do I hear from these artists without creating a new station for each of them?

Thanks

[AdamPandora]

@rlsmith1956 I moved your post to this thread since you have a similar question: Not hearing seeded artists added on station

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 even more variety.

Check out the accepted solution to this thread for more information.

This being said, I do see you are currently upgraded to Pandora Premium.

With this level of subscription, you have the option to create customized playlists where you can pick and choose the specific songs and artists you want to hear.

For instructions on how you can create new playlists, check out this thread: How to create a new playlist

Hope this helps! 🤝

[Suffercait]

I am annoyed about my Work mix station which has been not playing seeder songs, and instead playing remixed versions of said songs. This has definitely happened with "I love it" by Icona Pop and "Dance Monkey" by tones and I. I don't really want to change modes as the rest of the station is doing great, but it is frustrating everytime I get a remix of a song I haven't heard in months, maybe more. And I listen up to 10 hrs a day some days.

[AdamPandora]

@Suffercait I'd be happy to help with any questions you have, but I will need additional information to do so.

Can you explain your issue a bit further?

What exactly do you mean by seeder songs? The more details you're able to provide, the better equipped I'll be to help.

I look forward to hearing back.

[Suffercait]

 songs my station is created from. 

[lepmcdonald]

I created a personalized station and added about 75 artists to that list. Recently, I'm only hearing about 15 artists in my playlist. Why is my station only playing these few artists and not using my total list?

[Supraderp]

Is there a reason Pandora refuses to play songs from seed artists outside of artist only mode?

I've hit thumbs down like 50 times in a row and Pandora is just playing unhinged garbage. 

Very close to cutting off the income they're getting from me. 

I tried clearing out the enormous list of thumb down songs to maybe "reset" it. See how this goes 

[AdamPandora]

@Supraderp I moved your post to this thread since you have a similar question: Not hearing seeded artists added on station

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 even more variety.

Check out the accepted solution to this thread for more information.

Hope this helps! 🤝

[moby8403]

I agree it's stupid. Pandora says due to licensing issues they can't make it predictable, but then why make it an option to build a station based on a specific artist or song? I think it's more of a way to force us to use their already-existing stations, but honestly, if that's the case, there's no need to use them when Spotify already does the same thing. What attracts us to use Pandora is the option and supposed ability to build a station of our own based on a specific song's vibe/sound or an artist's vibe/sound. Basically, if I build a station based on Jingle Bells, they can't gauranteed it won't be three years before that song ever got played. It defeats the purpose of the ability. 

If it doesn't narrow it down, then what is the use of the function? May as well cancel Pandora and just use Spotify if the 'build your own station' thing is so flawed.

Moderator Edit: Merged comments