# Pandora is pretty good for classical music



## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

The subject line says it all. I said "pretty good", not great. They overplay the warhorses, and if you listen to them for a couple months, you will find yourself hearing the same pieces over and over again. I think I have only heard them play 4-5 different pieces by J. S. Bach, a great, prolific, and popular composer. They will never play an entire multi-movement symphony or concerto, only a single movement.

On the up side, I only pay them $4/month for their I-Phone app, which is practically free. You can create as many "stations" as you want, so if you don't like what they're playing, you can switch to something else. They do play some unusual works, such as earlier symphonies of Schubert and Dvorak and works by 20th-century composers such as Berg, Hindemith, Elliott Carter, etc. They display short bios of the composers on your I-Phone screen, which probably won't tell you much you don't already know, if you are a typical user of this forum. 

They have a free version, but it has ads and there are limits to how freely you can choose what you listen to. At first I had the free version and it was very good, then they started restricting how many tracks you could "dislike", and I got the paid version. I don't know if the free version is worth listening to now.

I do not know if they will harrass you if you cancel their service, as Sirius XM does, for I have not tried.

vpr.net's classical music service is superior, because they have a better library and they play entire works, not just single movements, but I cannot get their I-Phone app to work consistently, so I frequently listen to Pandora when I am not around a Web-connected computer.

Disclosure: I do not work for Pandora, nor do I know anyone who works for Pandora.


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

I am a subscriber on Pandora ... have been for years. I pay an annual fee of $36 (usd) for the service. I often listen to Classical music while at the PC terminal and can also stream it to my HiFi system via a wireless connection at home.

My only fault is that they replay the same classical works too often ... but since I am a lover of Classical music, I don't seem to mind.

It was my understanding that Pandora is not available to those across the pond ... or ... perhaps it is now or will be in the future?

Kh 

I am also not an employee of Pandora ... just a paid subscriber.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

I like Last.fm better. I like how you can filter a particular style of Classical Music based on Similar Composers to a certain one you are interested in. I think they have as close to a style you can get on the web based on a particular Composer. I'm also a paid subscriber. Not an employee.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I used Pandora for a year, when I was discovering a bunch of new things that it really helped me with. But then after a year, the classical pop took over my stations, I started getting bored of the same things I loved coming over and over, and then I discovered turntable.fm... Pandora was good for a while, but only for a while for me.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I have experimented with a number of the aforementioned and similar services. I dislike them all.

1. They play only the most famous works by the most famous composers, primarily Baroque, Classical and Romantic.
2. They play only one movement, not the whole work.
3. They tend to play only orchestral/symphonies and not much chamber music.
4. They avoid atonal/dissonant music and XXth Century/Contemporary composers.
5. I am forced to hear what they've got on, not what I feel like hearing at a given moment in time.
6. I have to pay for use of their service and I have nothing to show for it, unlike buying my own collection of CDs.
7. Some even have talking and advertisements, like commercial radio.
8. It can be difficult to know what is currently playing without following along on the website.

I don't see any advantage to these services. I'd rather buy albums and rip them for listening when away from home.

Through the public library, I have free access to Naxos, which I use for testing out prospective new CD purchases.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Of course you can train Pandora, and I get a lot of modern classical. I've never had a problem with orchestral only as opposed to chamber.

The fact that you don't know what's coming next is a feature, not a bug, IMO. Sometimes I like being surprised or hearing something I'm not familiar with.

The problems with movements and labeling, I agree with. E.g, Petrouchka pops up a lot for me but is broken down into two minute sections, which makes no sense. And there are times I can't figure out what is playing, for mixed composer CDs especially.

Right now I'm getting to Shostakovich's Lyric Waltz on Pandora, but the album title says "Plain toe 4 eyelet blucher genuine snake lace oxford."


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