Burn. Peace out. Enjoy the silence. ... View more

For anyone who needed clarification, I didn't mean financially afford Pandora. Ever been with a bad partner? And you thought to yourself "I can't afford to stay with this guy / girl" even though they were pretty well off, because something was really off about their behavior or character? That's what I meant by afford, not in a literal sense of the word afford. Or, "I can't afford to let my rich grandpa do any more expensive favors, and I can't afford to let him be in my life, because he will come back later and try to manipulate me into doing something I don't feel great about doing". That kind of 'can't afford' - a psychological or moral 'can't afford'. I mean, I sucked at English classes more than any other subject in school, was a little brain damaged from my birth mom doing drugs when she was making me because I came from rape and they wouldn't let her get an abortion, and I am autistic so sometimes sarcasm doesn't register right away . . . . . but I take time after reading comments to think about what people really mean, are thinking, and what they really feel, and I can recognize metaphors when I actually think after reading things, but some people need a little help. So here is your help.       ... View more

Goodbye, Pandora. I gave you as much more of a chance as I could. I can't pay you even one more payment for Premium, because you will just keep psychologically abusing me. I shouldn't have to thumb down a bajillion songs by Stick Figure, and a bajillion songs by another artist I can't even bring myself to type the name of cause it triggers the PTSD that bad, and I shouldn't have to thumb down the SAME song by Stick Figure over and over and over and over and over again - on THE SAME STATION - to not have to see that song title again. It's not an artists fault if they unfortunately get associated with a horribly traumatic event or series of events, but the result is all the same for a person with severe PTSD, extreme pain and disgust and psychological hell that they shouldn't have to live through again, even if only in their own memories playing against their will on repeat, with no mercy, because of a stupid song your app couldn't encode as being thumbed down, even if it was thumbed down more than 4 times on the very same station. I deleted the app today. Goodbye, and I hope you figure out your **ahem** for other users with really bad PTSD, before your business goes down, or starts to lose enough money that you notice a big enough difference.   ... View more

Some people may not even have a personal issue with an artist, they may feel conflicted about thumbing a song down because it is very much their musical taste - and think they will be telling Pandora "you suck at figuring out my musical tastes" when the reason you can't listen to maybe only one song, or an artist entirely - has nothing to do with the artist's morals or disliking the sound of their music. Maybe this is something that only people with PTSD could understand, but sometimes an artist or song you would otherwise like the sound of absolutely - literally causes you pain - like a hit in the gut - to listen to - because of how that song or artist got connected to an extremely traumatic event or a series of traumatic events that just wouldn't stop. The human mind is very powerful with associations, particularly with smells and music. I feel like the fact that Pandora has not addressed this issue yet, of not having a "Block an artist" feature, is just proof that it is never going to get fixed, and that the people up top, couldn't give less of a "whatever" about Pandora's users. I pay for premium right now, and have immensely enjoyed so many of the benefits that have come with that, but at this point I am seriously considering not only stopping paying for premium, but stopping using pandora entirely. And letting everyone know who knows someone with severe PTSD, that if they can afford (energy wise) to switch to another music playing app, they should think of doing it to support their loved one with PTSD. I get that you can't avoid a lot of triggers with a past traumatic event, but it would be really nice if the app I am using to soothe myself and exercise to get better - didn't have to be a source of so much more pain in the same session. The benefits are kind of depletive and cancelling out when it's like that. I am going to give Pandora as much more of a chance as I can, but I don't know how much more pain I can take. I am already researching alternatives, because I don't think Pandora is going to "waste" it's time or money to create this feature for even Premium users, like me. Please don't reach out to me in an email - I am just providing an insight from the perspective of someone with severe PTSD, so maybe Pandora people with any modicum of power, can have that knowledge about other users who are disliking artists over and over for the same reasons as me. I can't be the only user like that. This world is a messed up place, that causes a lot of extreme hurt to enough people, pain that echoes on in your mind long after the traumatic events, and begins to throb even more painfully when you trip on a trauma trigger that is a song or an artist. It would literally cause me so much more pain if a Pandora professional contacted me in any way about this after, so please don't. It was all I could do to write this, and this is the limit on how much I can consciously process it. Thank you in advance for respecting my need to not have to process this further. Kelcy ... View more