(RESOLVED: 11/28/23) - Sudden change in songs that are playing on my stations

[Alakhlok0]

For over a year, Cool Jazz radio (a misnomer) has been absolutely awesome.

But two weekends ago (11/12 Nov) it turned into Smooth Jazz, which is to say it went from Bill Charlap-type trio/quartet traditional jazz to Foreplay/Najee type of jazz which is more Smooth Jazz.

Last weekend it changed again and tilted toward traditional jazz again, but not as good as earlier this month and before.

WTH?

I have found no where to complain to Pandora other than this forum.

Moderator Edit: Edited title for clarity

[Stelcom66]

Suddenly very strange tunes on Chillout Radio

Suddenly, today 11/20/23 Chillout starting playing very weird vocal selections. Very very annoying. This happened months ago, then for several months it was fine. I wonder why in the world are these weird selections are now being played? I lost count how many simultaneous songs I thumbed down. Someone or some thing messed with it big time and it's terrible.

I agree. Chillout Radio become terrible lately with outright strange annoying music. It was a big, negative change that happened this week. I no longer listen to that station. I wonder if others will follow the same ridiculous trend.

Moderator Edit: Merged comments

[jsjk]

Suddenly 80s Cardio is playing some unusual songs.

Today we have "Almighty Drive Time Mix" - over 1 hour long, and "Last Christmas".

A few other Christmas songs came in yesterday.

We play this at our gym every day and this just started happening.

Did something change?

I used the Thumbs Down but can't watch the song list all day long.

Now "Bring me to Life" by Evanescense played.

Confirmed that we are not on Shuffle, just 80's Cardio.

Something strange is happening.

"Joy to the World" just played.

When did Ozzy Osbourne join 80's Cardio?

This is not what we are used to hearing

Moderator Edit: Merged comments

[moonthink]

The canned answer they are giving here is not correct/truthful. I have a station I have created based on Bo Diddley and other adjacent blues artists. It took a couple of years of me "training it to get it right, and then for about the last 2 years or so -- it has been nearly perfect, rarely a skip or thumbs down. So much so that I became a paid subscriber. Then this week, out of the blue, it keeps pushing music/artists that aren't even close. The Beatles, Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, Bob Dylan. Now I have to "re-train" the station again, and even with the thumbs down -- it keeps giving more from these artists that are NOT BLUES or even blues adjacent. **ahem**?

What is the point of having a personalized station if after multiple years I suddenly seem to be at square one again. Not likely to renew my subscription based on that.

[RFeynman]

Did Something Change? Lots of "New" Music

I have a couple of channels that are well established (many years with many thumbed up/thumbed down songs). In the last day or couple of days, I've noticed that they are playing a lot of songs that have not been thumbed up or down and which I have not heard before. It includes many songs from artists that I've liked but not their well-known stuff as well as other artists I've never heard of before. Did the algorithm change or maybe Pandora has rights to a lot of music they didn't have before?

Speaking of rights, is there any list of songs that Pandora can't play? There's one song in particular that I've marked as an influence and liked every other song on the album as thumbs up which are played frequently. But there is one song on an album that has never played to my knowledge which is actually the one I want most.

Thanks and happy Thanksgiving to all (for those who celebrate)!

[TayStad]

On Nov. 21, I noticed that thumbed-up songs play less often (about every 6th-7th song instead of the usual 3rd-4th song) with a lot of new songs in-between and some thumbed-up songs/albums don’t play at all anymore (now in Station Info. Screen they’re greyed-out and it says “radio” under the play button).

Definitely seems like Pandora must of changed their algorithm and/or lost rights to albums/songs.

I’ve had a free account since July of 2009 and not much have changed, this being the biggest change since buying Rdio. Maybe they’re trying to persuade us to upgrade?

Hopefully we’ll find out something.

Later and thanks!

[AdamPandora]

@moonthink @TayStad @RFeynman I moved your posts over to this existing thread: Sudden change in songs that are playing on my stations

The next time it 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!

[Porkchoppaul]

Same here. Annoying! 

I want to listen to punk rock Christmas and it’s playing Gene Vincent. **ahem**? Haha really? 

[RFeynman]

@AdamPandora Thanks for moving my post, but I don't think it really belongs on the out of place tracks. Rather, I noticed some significant difference in what is being played; not necessarily incorrect, but I'm getting many new songs on very well established stations. I'm trying to understand if there's been a change to the algorithm or approach that Pandora is taking. While many of them aren't thumbs up for me, they're arguably in the right genre for the station. Just previously I would get very few new songs and mostly songs I've already thumbed up; now, SO many songs are new songs.

[ErikW]

Was there a recent change in the songs that filter into your station?

Just within the last week or so, my station has started filtering music that is completely unrelated to the style of music that station is geared towards.  I mean, completely unrelated.  I'm getting J-pop mixed into music that's Euro/norse/german folk - seeded by Wardruna.  It's filtering in heavy metal, J-pop, and literally omitting several of the bands that are used to seed this station.

Is there a setting that I can change?  This is infuriating.

[tazza]

Same here!!! All of a sudden about 2 or 3 days ago, pandora will play songs that I have never heard before and new artists. Seems like they changed there algorithm. It's great that pandora would once in a while play something new but if I thumbs down it, it usually would get back to things I've thumbs upped or at least that it usually plays. Now, it is very annoying, it will play 7, 8, 9 tracks in a row that are completely new and obscure even if I thumbs down all of them in a row until I hit the max! 

This is bad, enough to make me not listen to Pandora anymore which is SAD - I loved some of my Pandora radio stations - **ahem**!

Hopefully this is a glitch? And will be fixed? Would be nice to hear from someone from Pandora and tell us why they would do this!

And it is not because I have added some other "seeds"  Have not changed anything in quite a while and it is happening on all the Pandora "stations" that I have created!

Moderator Edit: Merged comments

[AdamPandora]

Pandora Update  (11/25/23):

NOTE: This message has been Accepted as a Solution to flag the current steps and/or status of this thread. This post will be updated with more information as it is provided to the moderation team.

---

Hi, everyone! 👋

We have received a number of reports from our users mentioning a sudden change in the type of music that is playing on their collected stations.

If you are experiencing this issue, we'd like to gather some additional details from you so that we can report your feedback to our engineering team.

The next time your station plays an out of place track, please give it 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.

---

Troubleshooting Suggestions:

In the meantime, to improve your stations, here are a couple of things to try:

1. Thumb down tracks that do not fit. This will prevent that song from playing again, and Pandora will learn more about what you don't want to hear.
2. Make sure each of the thumbs-up you've given fits in with the type of station you are trying to create. If not, then remove that thumbs-up rating from the station page.
3. When listening from a computer, a mobile device or the Sonos app, you can access Pandora Modes to customize your station experience. You can pick different modes like Crowd Faves, Discovery and Deep Cuts.

Thanks everyone!

[ErikW]

Worst of all for me, lately, are the same songs playing on repeat.  Of all the bands it could pull from it's grabbing 5 or so songs and playing them on repeat.

[AdamPandora]

@ErikW The next time the tracks repeat for you in the same listening session, please reply back to this thread with:

• The name of the station you were listening to:
  
• The date/time the track(s) played and repeated
  
• The name(s) of the artist(s) on the station.
  
• The title(s) of the track(s) that played and repeated.

Thanks again for working with me on this.

[MichaelER]

Yes, I will chime in on this as well.  As of the day before Thanksgiving, the number of songs outside "My Collection" on shuffle dramatically increased. I will say that about 40% of the songs are outside the collection. In the past, I have welcomed the occasional "suggestions" and have found new artists and songs to add to the collection or favorite. Now it is overwhelming, and many suggestions are not even close to my tastes. I know that I can "thumb down" these suggestions but that will require an extensive effort. What gives?

[AdamPandora]

@MichaelER If you are experiencing issues with this, please follow up with all of the information requested in my message above.

Once we are provided with specific examples, we can then pass your feedback along to our engineering team for further review.

Thanks for all your help with this!

[ErikW]

Since you're looking for something of an answer, this is what I can provide for you so far.

https://imgur.com/a/eXuff6m These screen grabs are what I can show you so far.  The first 5 screens are the songs I've had to thumbs down in the last 4-5 days worth of listening.  They're NOT even close to being the same music as the seed, which is the neo-folk band Forndom.  The last 2 images are the seed bands that I put in to filter music.  Special note, 2 of those bands haven't filtered in for months, (Gealdyr and Helmdom).

The bands that have been playing on repeat, are Kalandra (just 1 song Helheim (Extended) - Tries to play as soon as I launch Pandora), and Trevor Morris (Ragnar Honors Athelstan's Death).  By themselves, it would be fine if these filtered in once and a while; however the station attempts to, and has, play them almost immediately after I launch Pandora.  I am also seeing an overabundance of Live performance versions filter in that I wasn't encountering before.  While these aren't bad; many of these live versions aren't as good quality recordings.  (Primarily the band Santiano.)

When I'm launching Pandora, it's from a web browser using Chrome.  I have not encountered this yet on a mobile device.

[AdamPandora]

@ErikW Thanks for providing that info.

I've passed this along to the appropriate parties for further investigation. We'll follow up with you if we need any additional details.

Thanks for your patience in the meantime!

[Stelcom66]

Great, thought I'd not have to be concerned with Gandalf Radio. Now that has been playing weird vocal selections! Some spoken, very annoying. Why is Pandora doing this? To annoy customers? If it keeps up I really need to reconsider renewing in January.

[Gsmunger]

Same issues…all my stations have gone to playing different songs.  Very frustrating…😖