(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

[AdamPandora]

@Gsmunger Thanks for sharing your experience.

Please follow up with all of the information requested in my message above.

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

Thanks for the help!

[AdamPandora]

@Stelcom66 I moved your post back over to this existing thread: Sudden change in songs that are playing on my stations

Your additional feedback has been passed along to the appropriate teams.

Thanks again for your patience.

[MichaelER]

My Pandora seems to be responding appropriately now...Samsung TV app, Dell laptop app...fingers crossed...

[daspork]

Same here. Have chill station based off a low key Sunlounger tune that we've listened to for years. Trained it well. A week or two ago it started playin crazy dance/house throbbing beat music from out of nowhere. I think I thumbs upped/downed a handful of tunes in the last year. We thumbs downed dozens just in the last week or so. Screenshotting and telling them "when this happens" (it's all day) is a silly request - just look at my thumbs down list and they'd get the picture. Really annoying.

[MichaelER]

I spoke too soon. For a brief period of time today the shuffle through my collection seemed to go back to the expected behavior. Then, more and more unexpected artists and songs began playing. A few seemed somewhat related to my collection, most were completely unrelated. I started receiving songs from Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Adele, and Ed Sheeran which I do not have an interest in.  I have repeatedly gotten the same songs, in the same order by Lily Adams (?), Al Jarreau, and Amy Winehouse. Some selections I actually find objectionable. (Not to disparage anyone's preferences.) I usually listen to Pandora whenever I am home but have turned it off as it is now so unpredictable and unenjoyable.

[jeaniek24]

I'm currently listening to 2000's Pop Hits and I haven't known any songs that have been playing or it's playing hits done by random artists, like a Kids Bop version.  What is going on?

[tazza]

There is no way that we would have time to do all that! This should be a very obvious bug or issue to Pandora that I would hope that you are currently fixing as soon as possible! It is obviously happening to thousands and thousands of people if not everybody (It may be some just are not that aware).

Like I said, we had not changed anything - it just started doing this. Pandora will play 7, 8, 9 tracks in a row that are brand new and we will thumbs down all of them until it gets to the max and we can't thumbs down anymore then we are done listening to Pandora and have to switch to something else. This should be a pretty obvious issue!

Please fix! Thanks!

We have all spent hours and hours - years and years, training our stations to the way that we want. IS so disappointing that this is happening. I sure hope Pandora fixes this soon!

Moderator Edit: Merged comments

[twicktor]

Agree 100% with tazza 11/24/23 11:07 AM

I too have experienced "out of place" songs on my most resent listened to stations.  Started about the same time as mentioned before by others.  Annoying problem.  It sounds like a systemic problem not anyone's individual stations.  Like, someone tweaked the algorithm and it turned horrible bad.

[tazza]

Agree with twicktor! Exactly - this is not a individual thing - definitely global. Pandora must have tweaked the algorithm for this to be happening - either on purpose (thinking it was going to be better) or accidentally. I urge Pandora to get on top of this as soon as possible. Please!

[AdamPandora · Accepted solution]

Pandora Update  (11/28/23):

Hi, there! 👋

We want to take the time to thank everyone who helped report and bring this to our attention.

We've made a small change that should help.

Please try tuning into your stations again.

This thread will now be blocked from further replies - if you are still experiencing issues, please create a new thread in the My Collection space.

Thanks again! 

---

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!

[MichaelER]

My Pandora has returned to its former behavior. Thanks for the correction.

[jsjk]

I will add that it seems to be back to normal.

And no Christmas songs for the past 2 days.

[drpetruccelli]

I had a similar issue.  Jack Johnson radio, which I've been listening to in my office every day since 2008, suddenly played Cleaning out my Closet by Eminem.  Skipped it and it went to a christmas carol by Frank Sinatra.  Station will still acting strange this week but today it seems to be back to normal.  

[ErikW]

My station is back to playing what I would classify as an appropriate assortment of music that I was used to.  I occasionally dive into Discovery should I want to find new stuff.  It is also back to playing less of one song on repeat as it had been.

I would like to add that the algorithm does still tend to pick the same songs a little too much, but this has always been the case.  Some of these artists have a hundred songs to pick from and it loves to play the same 10 on repeat.

[Roanokebarry]

Definitely I’ve been putting thumbs down on hundreds of songs I never heard of or wanted to hear but it does no good at all.    Something is going on seems I’m wasting my time trying to listen to the songs I want to hear.   

[AdamPandora]

@Roanokebarry It sounds like you still may be experiencing issues with this.

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.

Thanks so much for continuing to work with us on this.

[Stelcom66]

Dare I say - and I hope I'm not speaking too soon or end up jinxing it, but it seems like that last week or so Chillout and Gandalf Radio are back to playing good tunes as they were previously.

[Alakhlok0]

Ok, things seem to be back to normal, I'll continue to monitor (i.e. enjoy) Cool Jazz radio.

Peaceful instrumental Christmas music radio is awesome by the way.

Thanks, Pandora for your attention to us listeners.