Station Repetition

[GGirl]

Altho I have faithfully followed the instructions to add variety/new artists to my station, I never hear them. I seem to hear the same 20 or so songs over and over. How do I fix this? As best I can tell this isn't a genre station and the "add variety" button isn't greyed out.

[AdamPandora · Accepted solution]

@GGirl It's true there can be a certain amount of repetition in some stations. Each listener has different tastes when it comes to hearing the familiar versus discovering new songs. Finding the right balance for each individual is something we continue to work on.

In the meantime, here are some things you can do to improve your stations:

1. Listen using Pandora Modes when listening from a computer or mobile device, you can access Pandora Modes to customize your station experience. You can pick different modes like Crowd Faves, Discovery and Deep Cuts.
2. Put tracks on the shelf: If you get sick of a track but don't want to give it a Thumbs Down, you can put it on the shelf for a while. To do this from the web, hover your mouse over the album art and select "I'm tired of this track." Pandora Premium listeners should click the ellipsis (3 dots) next the album art to see that option.
3. Edit your station: In some cases, it might actually help to remove Thumbs Up ratings in the station to mix things up.
4. Add Variety: To add more variety to your artist or song based stations, you can select additional artist and/or song seeds. You can Add Variety when editing stations.

Running through these steps should increase the variety of the station pretty quickly during your listening sessions. 

Thanks for posting on the community!

[davidjharris123]

I'm tired of the repeats, same artists and same songs being played over and over with no discovery of new artists.  I'm also tired of the awful sound quality on IOS, despite paying for a plus subscription.  I'm going over to Spotify.

[ajlierl]

The put on the shelf option needs to be added to the app and not just be available on desktop. I have tried all these other options and still am very close to trying a different streaming service. Fix your algorithms!

[senselocke]

Station with over 300 liked songs, 25 seeds, and set to Discovery played ONLY music already heard and liked. Skipped forward every time I saw a thumbs up. I ran out of time (30 minute drive), every single song a repeat.

I should not have to give up and use LiveXLive or Spotify, and y'all really don't want Premium folks finding out other options work better.

How about you just make ALL features available for ALL versions (mobile, desktop). Oh, and give us back "move this track to another station". This used to simply add a "like" to a song on another station. Now you have to:

1. pause the station
2. write down the artist and track
3. open "my collection"
4. open a station
5. open "add variety"
6. search the song or artist, and
7. add as a station seed

You can no longer just add a  "like", it must be a seed. That's a stupid amount of steps compared to the killed feature. And even more obnoxious on Mobile, since it now takes minutes instead of seconds.

You used to have the ability to split a station into several, moving songs around. You can't anymore.

So quit telling us to "spin the knobs". It's been the same non-answer year after year. Stop removing features. And for heaven's sake find and fix your busted code.

PS: Copying the whole list of Liked songs on desktop requires loading an "infinite" page showing only ten or so more songs each time. Last time I "spun the knobs" I copied everything to a text file, deleted, and started over  It took almost 20 minutes to load the each station's whole list, and it was causing the browser to lag. It's not a simple or easy process. And since you can only add songs as "seeds" and not just "likes" the new station hyper-focuses on, again, the same songs. A "download station" feature that saves a simple text file with station details would be dead simple to create.

[AdamPandora]

@senselocke Nice to see you around the Community. 👋🏽

Move this track to another station & Liking tracks no longer a feature: 

Thank you for sharing your feedback around this. If you'd like to see these options added back to the service, I recommend creating a feature request for your suggestion here.

This will give others around the Community a chance to upvote your idea to express interest as well.

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Discovery Mode only playing liked tracks:

What is the name of the station you are listening to on Discovery Mode when it is only playing thumbed up tracks?

Let me know.

[pr3]

I agree with davidjharris123.  I spent years curating a Pandora station that was to my liking, adding artists, thumbs up/down, etc.  only to now hear thumbs up tracks repeatedly, 1-2 songs per artist, if I hear them at all and virtually no new, same genre artists.  I like the songs my station plays, just don't need to hear them multiple times a day with no variety.  I struggled through ads for years and recently decided to pay for a Pandora subscription, but am re-thinking the wisdom of that decision.  Looking into YouTube music which has everything, but I'll be sad to see all my years of diligence and love for Pandora wasted by weird algorithims and lack of variety.  Also, the seeming inability to change your mind about a thumbs up'd song.  I've tried "un-thumbing" but it just pops back up.  I'm afraid if I do thumbs down, I'll never hear it again.

Please do better, Pandora.  Subscribers deserve it.

[AdamPandora]

Thank you for sharing your feedback, @pr3.

You should still be able to edit any Thumb ratings you've changed your mind about.

Check out the accepted solution to this thread for instructions on how to do so: How to edit thumb ratings

Hope this helps!

[LuckPusher]

I feel you.  Now, even all my stations sound the same too.  It's infuriating!

[Disappointed]

I knew I wasn't the only one so I poked around the internet and I'm thankful I found this tread. Pandora literally offers no new music for me. I've even started new playlist using artists that I've never listed to on pandora and all it does is play songs I've liked on my old stations. This is absolutely ridiculous! 

[SpookiusMortem]

Having the same issue. I recently switched to Pandora from Spotify because of how the stations on Pandora are 'supposed' to work, but clearly the software is either bugged or poorly designed, maybe both. The suggested steps are ridiculous. This needs to be fixed internally, not by having users jump through hoops. I'm about ready to throw in the towel and head back to Spotify.

[owm]

I have a station I call Peace Piece. It is started from a Bill Evans tune by that name. It has 25 songs with Thumbs Up. Those 25 songs play multiple times per day, to the point that songs I once love(d) are now becoming annoying. I didn't start creating stations because I wanted Pandora to destroy the affection I have for pieces, I did it so your normally brilliant algorithm would help me find new, wonderful music. 

For example, one of the songs with a thumbs up is Eric Reed doing "Flamenco Sketches." I have had this station on for the past four hours and it has played this tune four times, in one instance it played twice within 25 minutes.  

Help, please.

[AdamPandora]

@owm I moved your post over to this existing thread: Station Repetition

Check out the accepted solution to this thread for instructions on how you can improve your station if it is getting too repetitive.

Hope this helps!

[owm]

This presumes I want to take a more active role in the management off my station. If I wanted to pick song by song, I could just sit at my desk and do so. I want your algorithm to do the heavy lifting whilst I relax and enjoy, That's the primary reason I spend the money and the YEARS of my precious time trying to get this straight. I absolutely do not want to have to stop what I am doing, find out what device I am using to get Pandora distributed, catch the song before it goes off, remember the procedure, and accomplish it. Seems like a lot to ask of a paying customer. There should be a better way.

I find Crowd Faves to be useless and the Discovery and Deep Cuts stray too far away from what I loved about my stations. 

Removing Thumbs Up likewise destroys the work I have done to create music I love.

I tried selecting additional artist and/or song seeds to the point I ended up with some with 50 seeds and 100 thumbs. I still hear the same songs coming back to haunt me. I know you say your system doesn't roll seeds from one station to another, but mine seem to go nbecause the same songs appear in multiple stations. 

[tcb71]

Nothing against Chris Stapleton but he's all over my collection. To the point of irritation.

Most egregious is with my 'Pablo Cruise' channel. His cuts rotate through all too frequently. Just today I logged into my PC channel and a song of his was first up. I clicked 'tired of this song' and another of his songs started playing. Clicked the tired button again, ad a third CS song began.

And as I type, the 4th song begins.

How is Chris Stapleton like Pablo Cruise, Earth, Wind, and FIre, Wiled Cherry, etc?

[AdamPandora]

@tcb71 I moved your post over to this existing thread: Station Repetition

After taking a look at your Pablo Cruise station, it looks like you've Thumbed Up a number of tracks by Chris Stapleton:

If you'd like to hear less of that artist on this station, I would recommend removing those Thumbed Up tracks by them, and instead give a Thumbs Down to any additional tracks that play by them moving forward.

You can also check out the accepted solution to this thread for instructions on how you can improve your station if it is getting too repetitive.

Hope this helps!

[stevew3344]

My main station has over 300 thumbs-up songs. There are some that come up multiple times/day, and some that haven't been played in over 6 months. It seems likely that Pandora is optimizing for license fees over customer preferences. Pandora Premium isn't cheap, and I expect more randomization of thumbs-up songs. Pandora also should be transparent, and make available the play frequency on your station over the past week/month/year.

I'm not even talking about presenting new artists or songs. I expect to hear my already-selected songs.

In reality, for the cost of 3 months of Pandora Premium I could buy all the songs that come up repeatedly, stick them on my iPhone and ditch Pandora altogether.

Currently investigating other services. Pandora has lost its edge.

[AdamPandora]

@stevew3344 What is the name of the station where you are experiencing repetition with songs?

Let me know.

[stevew3344]

@AdamPandora It is my "Lindsey Stirling Radio" station.

[AdamPandora]

Thanks for following up, @stevew3344.

Station Repetition:

Check out the accepted solution to this thread for instructions on how you can improve your Lindsey Stirling Radio station if it is getting too repetitive.

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Play frequency of stations:

As for your suggestion on being able to view what tracks play on your station, I recommend upvoting this existing feature request with a ❤️and leaving a comment: Make Listening History Available

Hope this helps!