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Repetition with Genre Stations

AnotherStranger
Local Performer

This is a problem that seems to affect just a handful of stations. Most of Pandora's stations are pretty good about playing variety, but there are some exceptions where repetitiveness severely cripples the station as a whole. Examples: The Showtunes and Broadway Showtunes stations are just awful. The former only plays Wicked, Greatest Showman, and WAY too much Disney. The latter only plays Wicked, Hamilton, and Dear Evan Hansen. Seriously, I had to go through about 20 skips and the accompanying ads just to hear freaking Seasons of Love, and then it went right back to the same overrated nonsense. Seriously, there are other, better musicals--lots of that-- that these stations could play. Similar problem for a much different genre: Pandora's doom metal station might as well be an Electric Wizard/Eyehategod combo station, but doom metal is much, much more expansive than stoner sludge, and the station completely fails to encapsulate the breadth of the genre. Furthermore, the Goth station could be expanded well beyond simply playing the entire discographies of Depeche Mode and The Cure -- especially considering both the Post-Punk and Dark Wave stations also overplay these artists. There are other stations with this problem, but these are by far the worst I've encountered. Seriously, it can't be that hard to curate a station which offers variety within a genre and shows the full scope of its content and influence. Fix this.

 

Moderator Edit: Edited title for clarity

Labels (2)
26 Replies

neel_arunabh
Opening Act

I am really really really really angry at 2016 hits Radio. I everyday wait for the opportunity to hear an unheard song on the station. I turned on the Premium session and kept skipping tracks and the first unheard track I heard was "Cyclone" by The Upsidedown. But, the track did not exist until 2018, so I gave it a Thumbs Down for 2016 Hits Radio. After a few skips, the next unheard track was "Diamond Rings" by Vasco. But, that track did not exist until 2019, so I gave it a Thumbs Down for 2016 Hits Radio as well. Later , it started playing "Used to Love" by Martin Garrix and Dean Lewis. But, that track did not exist until 2019, so I gave it a Thumbs Down for 2016 Hits Radio as well. After that, it was only playing previously Thumbed Up songs. This is not fair. I want to hear more unheard songs which are fit for that station. 

mod edit: changed title for clarity

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AlyssaPandora
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi there, @neel_arunabh. 👋

Thanks so much for your feedback about this.

Genre stations such as "Today's Hits" and "Today's Hip Hop and Pop Hits" will primarily play current hits, but we will also play an occasional song from the 90s or 2000s to provide a more diverse listening experience. This works the same with stations like 2016 Hits Radio, we will include newer tracks as well. These are stations specifically created and curated by Pandora.

You can use Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down to tune your station to your liking and let us know what you want to hear more or less of.

As an alternative to a genre station, we recommend creating your own station, using an artist or song that you think best represents a particular genre. Then use Thumbs to help guide the station you are trying to create. Additionally, you may Add Variety to the station you create, in order to include other artists or songs you'd like to influence your station. Keep in mind, each seed you add will inspire hundreds of other songs, so a little variety goes a long way. If you don't like the direction the station your created is headed, you can always edit your station seeds and Thumbs through the Station Details. 

Please note, genre stations are stations curated by Pandora, and they behave a little bit differently than your own personalized stations. One difference is that you cannot Add Variety to these stations. That's because Adding Variety could change your listening experience on these stations; added seeds would most likely inspire music outside of the scope of the intended genre. 

Hope to see you around the community space more often! 🎧

Alyssa | Community Manager
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Mark6422
Local Performer

I have been listening to 70's Pop Radio and I do love the music from this decade, but I have a couple of issues with the station.  1) After listening for about 2 weeks, it appears that there are only about 50 or so songs that get played repeatedly.  Even if you went with a conservative count of 25 top songs per year, that would give you at least 250 songs for the decade.  2) Out of the songs that do get played on the 70's Pop Radio station, I have counted at least 7 alternate recordings.  There maybe more.  Some of these alternative recordings are awful.  Example:  Starbuck's Moonlight Feels Right doesn't sound right.  I gave these a thumbs down hoping Pandora will eventually play the original, but so far, no luck.  Why does Pandora put these awful alternate recordings into the mix?

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AdamPandora
Community Manager
Community Manager

@Mark6422 I moved your post over to this existing thread: Repetition with Genre Stations

Check out the accepted solution to this thread for some tips to get your station back on track if it is getting too repetitive.

Hope this helps!

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khan-flo-mah
Local Performer

No one with any music business experience see4ms to be answering. Here is the answer. The music industry. The idea is, smooth jazz, classic, blues, disco, new age, were too inclusive. They do not divide us up into neat little pockets so as to advertise to us. For example, your race, age, sex, location. 
All those genres were yanked off the common radio as well. The heavy metal and rock genre wasnt doing the polarizing trick as well as country does. They are looking for a gop leaning middle aged audience. 30s.

Not 50s and 60s. Those ages are not welcomed by the labels at all. 
So therefore all we are gonna get is things like "Oldies" all hurled in a single bucket. So you literally might get elvis, playing next to the doors, and buddy holly followed by the supremes. 

They see you as an older liberal. 

They dont want you running into hard-to0-reach-you pockets like blues. Ask yourself... What is the typical audience that likes blues? What race? Age? Sex? Location? You cant give me that... However, what if I had rush limbaugh talking on a talk radio format... What uis the likely genre? Age? Race? Location? You might be able to better pinpoint the listener... If youre not deliberately trying to play the fly in the ointment in my post, so as to troll it...

Its like the superbowl, this year. They openbly said they planned on hitting one of two demographics... 30s or the boomers and gen x. But the problem was, they admitted that they didnt want to hava a bunch of commercials depicting unmasked people in order to apease such an audience. So they opted for the millennials.. And thats why you got that half time show... 


This is business.

I like to sing jazz. Nat cole type stuff. I dont look like dian krull. This makes it so I cannot walk in her genre. 
That audience is obviously an older white female audience. So one might have an aarp commercial or anti abortion spots and tht sort of thing. Its the harry connick audience. But I dont look like harry connic/ michael buble. 
Its demographics. So say goodbye to heavy metal, smooth jazz, disco, straight ahead jazz, jazz standards, classical, opera, musicals, etc with any new artists, because the drop down to submit to such genres is already being removed on platforms from soundcloud to pandora. If youre a new artist that wants to make music that sounds like the commodore4s, or earth wind and fire, you have zero places to upload and find a new audience, without being a touring band that is directing people to your pandora music...If they ever accept you at all. 

I just signed up. When signing up, they in fact, asked for my age, location, sex, and if I was gay or not (by asking if I am non binary)

If I would have said I was gay or something, you can bet that kd lang or missy elliot (a perceived feminist)would be placed in front of me...Depending if I go into white artists or black artists. Under the form it says " why?"

The following is what pandora says as to why they want that stuff... It is for the exact reasons I laid out, here:

 


Why does pandora need my zip code, gender, and birth year?
Pandora collects registration data (birth year, gender and zip code) to customize and improve the products, services, content and advertising we provide to listeners.

For example, the free version of pandora is supported by advertisements, and we want to be able to show the most relevant ads to our listeners. We use your age, gender and zip code (the three pieces of demographic information you provide at registration) to personalize advertising on pandora. This means we may pass anonymized age, gender or zip code information to our ad-serving partners so they can personalize the ads you see. Please note, however, that our advertisers never know who they are serving such ads to – only that the ad is being served to an anonymous person of a particular age, gender, and/or location.

 

Nowthen...Do you really think, that if you were hired to sell ads for pandora, that youre not letting people know who the heck the audience is that they are trying to reach, as they claim? We all know that such a thing isnt happening. No company is gonna drop a large  costly ad campaign with an advertiser not knowing who the heck they are reaching, and you know that. 

All of this means absolute death for we, the local producers and artists. Because  pandora is bottle necking who can play, regardless of how good your product is, or how well it was recorded. 

So even if you wanted to try to reach a pandora audience with for example new soft piano music... You can forget about that. They are not going to accept new people into that genre. 

Moderator Edit: Format

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Esternlof
Local Performer

Even with a paid subscription, in the vast repertoire of classical music, you keep playing the same limited music, many pieces by different artists as if that increases the variety (it doesn’t) as if no one ever works to improve the selection. It is the same with all my stations. Please do a better job changing up your stations, especially the classical ones!!! Very disappointed! Thinking about canceling my subscription after all this time and just using Sirius. 

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AdamPandora
Community Manager
Community Manager

@Esternlof I moved your post over to this existing thread: Repetition with Genre Stations

I do see you have been listening to your Classical Relaxation station.

Check out the accepted solution to this thread for some tips to get your station back on track if it is getting too repetitive.

Hope this helps!

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