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Removed thumb-up has permanently altered station

caldella
Diamond in the Rough

I'm currently having issues with my Beneath the Starry Night station. A couple weeks ago, I thumbed up a track that was similar in style to the music on the station and by an artist I wasn't familiar with, to try and add a little bit of variety. Emphasis on a little.

 

Since then, the entire station altered because of this one track. Half the time, it refuses to play the mellow piano/string combo music I intended it for and plays to folk/western inspired twangy stuff instead. I removed the thumbs up that caused the initial problem and have thumbed down tracks that pop up, but it still persists, and it's not removing whatever musical elements it dragged in. Now, when I do hear music from the original seed/thumbed up artists on the station, it's often the same ones over and over and over and over. Deep Cuts, which is supposed to be playing less heard pieces by main artists on the station, is playing either the same overplayed pieces from the main channel or pieces from artists I've never heard of, who fall under the twangy western sound I don't want. I heard one overplayed song from a seed artist, about 5 tunes that didn't fit, then the same seed artist tune again. Discovery is also a complete wreck and giving me either the same repetitive tunes from familiar artists or stuff that is unrelated to the original intention of the station. At this point I can't switch modes on that station anymore because my attempts to correct things have run me out of skips. I've been trying for days to correct things with thumbs ups/etc. and it just won't...

 

I'm at a loss what to do. This is the 3rd/4th time I've created a station in this music style to try and get around the Pandora's issues of repetition/playing music that doesn't suit the station. It seems to happen over and over. I can't keep creating a new one every few weeks. and I don't want Pandora premium to 'make a custom playlist' as I'm trying to add variety to the station while still maintaining the same style of music. I can't add variety when I am not getting new artists that match what I want.

 

At this point, is there at least a way for someone in the back-end to remove any country/western-themed station notes that might be buried in that particular station? Because it seems like the system doesn't care what I tell it now. This is weeks of station tuning completely wrecked and now I have to go back to one of my old ones and pray it doesn't get repetitious again, too.

Labels (2)
3 Replies

AdamPandora
Community Manager
Community Manager

@caldella Sorry to hear that your stations aren't playing the way you want them to.

Pandora stations adapt with every song to try to find the right music for you. It does this by using a combination of the detailed information in the Music Genome Project, the station seeds and Thumbs feedback you have given along with feedback given by other listeners under similar conditions.

There are a number of variables that come into play when selecting the next song:

  • The complete range of musical attributes for all of the songs we have by the artist you used to create the station. For example, for a station based on Brian Eno, you might hear rock songs and ambient music. You might try creating a station from one of the artist's songs instead (e.g. Lucky Star by Madonna). This should make the station much more specific.

  • The type of feedback you've given on the station (all the Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down ratings) and any additional artist or song seeds you've added to the station. Pandora lumps all this together and tries to determine what the best musical match is based on our musical analysis.


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.


If you need help editing your stations, let me know.

Of course, Pandora Premium subscribers can also create custom playlists in order to have complete control of what they hear on Pandora. If you want more information about that, let me know.

Thanks so much for listening!

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caldella
Diamond in the Rough

Apologies, not intending to be curt (it's hard to get tone across correctly online!), but I'm not sure if you really read my post or are kind of obligated to give those general answers to everything before proceeding... I think I addressed basically everything you replied with. My current main issues are:

- My station altered drastically after I thumbed up a single track. I removed that track and continued thumbing down unfitting tracks after, but I'm still experiencing stylistic changes based on the removed thumbs-up. None of the my thumbed-up tracks reflect the country/western attributes that have been cropping up despite my thumb-downs. I really need some way to check if there are country or generally western themed attributes that have been added to the station, which is something I can't do that myself.

- My "Modes" are not playing as they're supposed to and actually have not for a year +. I went into it a little here but have spoken to you on the forums in the past about this happening in my other stations. Crowd Faves at times plays artists I don't even know or who don't fit the station. Deep Cuts plays either unfamiliar artists or overplayed/even seed tracks that run 2-3 times a day on the main station mode. Not lesser played at all. Last week the only break this mode took from overplayed songs was playing unfamiliar artists instead that were styled after the thumbs-up that I removed.

Discovery gives me music from seed/main station artists, too, sometimes even a literal seed song.

My issues with modes have been mentioned multiple times before and never had a solution...but it's a problem that's been persisting. I'm not sure what Pandora's Mode system is doing, but it's not functioning as intended for me. 

You've recommended the Pandora Plus to me before, but you haven't clarified how that would help me. I have been new stations in this style to find new music in the same style as my station, which a playlist won't do. I"m not sure if there's any Plus feature that would help that.

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MordorBoatin
Local Performer

Wow they straight up ignored your issue the first time and then refused to respond when you politely tried to clarify.

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