Mashable - The Social Media Guide - Latest Comments in Pandora Versus Last.fm: Features, Interface, Applications Compared

Re: Pandora Versus Last.fm: Features, Interface, Applications Compared

dizzy goodletspeak — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:00:15 -0000

LAST.FM hands down!!!!!!! I started with Pandora, spent a couple weeks on it. Each time, I ended up switching to listening CDs because the tracks that the radio stations generated for me were just wayyy too mediocre (they seemed to always land on that one track off the album that I didn't care for....I mean, it was amazing actually, they'd choose an album that I liked every track except one off of, and then play that track, lol). Let me add, that I tried this with numerous genres (from Pharcyde radio, to Frank Zappa radio, to Miles Davis radio, to Talking Heads radio, and the list goes....). When I'm not feeling a song, I hit the 'skip' button.
Pandora=6 skips / hr, and then won't let you skip anymore! wtf?!?!?
Last.fm=infinite skips....ahhhhhhhhh, relief.
AND, last.fm's international & reports to artist royalty collection agencies, which is a really nice thing for all the indy musicians out there, whose food budgets that actually affects, lol.

The choice is clear to me...

Re: Pandora Versus Last.fm: Features, Interface, Applications Compared

Mike — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:14:35 -0000

Last.fm beat Pandora to the XBOX360 stream. great move.

Re: Pandora Versus Last.fm: Features, Interface, Applications Compared

lola mullen — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:31:41 -0000

As a musician, last.fm is great in that it allows users to also have musician accounts, and for listeners all over the world to find, listen to, and comment on their music. However, Pandora's interface is much nicer and the Blackberry app is fantastic. I use both depending on what I am feeling in the mood for: a specific playlist of music I already own (iTunes/Audioscrobbler/last.fm) or new stuff based on artists I love (Pandora). Both have definite positives...

Re: Pandora Versus Last.fm: Features, Interface, Applications Compared

Thomas — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 14:56:44 -0000

Last.fm = clear winner. I know people say they get better music more consistently from Pandora, but I have found countless artists by listening to the last.fm radio. It is more comprehensive too, in that I can learn more about an individual song (see the lyrics, watch the music video, see what others think, etc.) and is a great way to share music with my friends. It keeps me updated with who's playing live in my area, and gives me the ability to track what I'm listening to.

Pandora looks cool, but Last.fm is clearly the better provider of a range of music/artist content.

Re: Pandora Versus Last.fm: Features, Interface, Applications Compared

lolek — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 14:09:47 -0000

yeah, it's all about the music.. and that's why for me last.fm is the winner. Trying to create European station on pandora, I had to babysit it and carefully remove everything even a little bit hip-hopish or jazz-like, because if anything like this was left there (even if I liked it), the whole station was shifting into that direction - simply, there is much more American music in Pandora's database. It's database didn't recognize many important European artists, there was no world music (and, possibly, Music genome Projects is unable to see the difference between European and American style - after all, the factors which are listed in "why did you play this song", can be applied to very different styles). Last.fm, on the other side, not only had the songs, but seems to know what I used to have on my tapes along with the songs I selected.

Re: Pandora Versus Last.fm: Features, Interface, Applications Compared

Ilya — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 06:45:18 -0000

Based on last.fm APIs http://gigfreaks.com provides even smarter events and concerts recommendations and tickets.

Re: Pandora Versus Last.fm: Features, Interface, Applications Compared

Jake — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 00:13:59 -0000

i think it depends on what you're trying to do. if you're just looking to listen to online radio to make the day go faster at work or to discover new artists pandora is your cup of tea. if you're looking to play your own music and share it with friends (and connect with a community of people for recommendations, concerts, groups or just to shoot the breeze) then last.fm is for you. i love scrobbling my songs, checking charts each week to see which group/artist had the most plays. pandora is easy listening. last.fm is high fidelity (the film) for the music snob.

Re: Pandora Versus Last.fm: Features, Interface, Applications Compared

jmccartie — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:48:40 -0000

@george -- I agree, I would not expect a young service to have as much depth. But that's my point. Jango does not yet have the depth of either pandora nor last.fm.

"I mean you tried the service by asking something not common" -- see above. This points to a lack of depth. I'm not discounting Jango from getting there eventually, but right now, it lacks the depth to compete. If it makes you happy, I'll be sure to check them out again in a few months.

Re: Pandora Versus Last.fm: Features, Interface, Applications Compared

John Grinde — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 16:03:07 -0000

I prefer Pandora, as it seems to learn what I like based on thumbs-up/thumbs-down ratings better than "liking" a song on Last.fm.

Re: Pandora Versus Last.fm: Features, Interface, Applications Compared

Md — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 09:30:17 -0000

I have never used any of those sites, I'm always on imeem, and that's cool for me... :)

Re: Pandora Versus Last.fm: Features, Interface, Applications Compared

Josh2.0 — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:04:46 -0000

Hi George, I posted in this thread, but wanted to ask you personally for some music recommendations for Jango (where I'm the music supervisor). I'd love for you to send me a top 10 list of Greek music we don't have. Anything goes, rock, pop, electronic, hiphop... Just whoever the massive artists are in Greece that I don't know about.

My email is music (at) jango (dot) com, and I look forward to filling any requests you might send. Just put you're name in the subject line and I'll be doubly sure to check it out.

Thanks,
Josh2.0

Re: Pandora Versus Last.fm: Features, Interface, Applications Compared

Josh2.0 — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 10:59:49 -0000

@george @jmccartie @everyone

Hi all, I'm Josh2.0, the music supervisor at Jango. I noticed a couple of comments in this thread and thought I'd take the time to respond, as well as solicit requests...

George is correct, Jango has existed for just one short year now (I've been here since the summer), and we are still deep in the process of filling out our catalog. As you might imagine, acquiring the whole of recorded music is an expensive, time-consuming business. However we are doing our best, adding thousands of songs every week, fielding user requests, ensuring genre coverage, etc. That said, because Jango is such a young site, there are still many gaps in the catalog.

So I'd like to offer you all the opportunity to contribute to our effort. Requests can be emailed directly to me, and should follow these guidelines:

-for indie, electronica, and other modern acts, at least 4,000 listeners on last.fm
-not released in the last week (we have it, it's just not live yet)
-not some canonical delta blues/traditional folk/memphis soul/etc. artist we just haven't had a chance to procure yet. i genre fill every week, and that list is already long enough.
-not your cousin's friend's coworker's plumber's son's band

That's about it really. Requests can be sent to me via music(at)jango(dot)com. Thanks in advance for anything you care to send, & helping make the internet a better place.

Josh2.0

Re: Pandora Versus Last.fm: Features, Interface, Applications Compared

jaredstill — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:59:30 -0000

Matt...super well written piece.

I have yet to jump into last.fm or pandora, but am relatively familiar/aware of both. This article is perfect for me, b/c based on your feedback and my listening/mobile preferences, Pandora seems like it would be best for me too.

Again, thanks for the great piece, it's evident you really, really did your homework!

cheers.

Re: Pandora Versus Last.fm: Features, Interface, Applications Compared

Sohit Karol — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 11:18:53 -0000

Pandora...Any day!!

Re: Pandora Versus Last.fm: Features, Interface, Applications Compared

Infonote — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 05:32:44 -0000

Lastfm.com hand down due to:

We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S. We will continue to work diligently to realize the vision of a truly global Pandora, but for the time being we are required to restrict its use. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.

Re: Pandora Versus Last.fm: Features, Interface, Applications Compared

Tor Erling — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:33:37 -0000

@Matt I really like last.fm I do. I used memix and grooveshark for a while, but I missed being able to update my blog with what I've been listening too, and the ability to get my favorites saved over at friendfeed.
I still use songza if I want to hear a single song, I just don't get why choosing to excluding all these other services and at the same time write an article that is useless for based on the comments, a third of your users. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

Re: Pandora Versus Last.fm: Features, Interface, Applications Compared

WindPower — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:06:58 -0000

@Matt Singley In love with Last.fm so far <3

Re: Pandora Versus Last.fm: Features, Interface, Applications Compared

jmccartie — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:54:04 -0000

@George No, I'm not a Pandora employee, nor any tie to any companies in this space.

I was excited to hear about another music service and quickly visited the site. At that exact moment, I was listening to a station I created keying off Marjorie Fair. Entering that band in Jango returned no results.

So a band with only one album, and that album being older than 2 years, should simply be excused from an online music source? I figured depth and breadth would be part of the criteria here. No?

Re: Pandora Versus Last.fm: Features, Interface, Applications Compared

jmccartie — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:08:19 -0000

Just went to Jango and entered one of my fav bands: marjorie fair. no matches. Pandora? Full station. Screw you, jango.

Re: Pandora Versus Last.fm: Features, Interface, Applications Compared

Aaron Wallis — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:03:08 -0000

Last.fm is my fave by far for one obvious reason... Pandora isn't available in Australia :D

Other than that the alternatives aren't nearly as full featured, also, the fact that i've clocked in nearly 45k scrobbles on last.fm means their selections are pretty darn tailored to my tastes, no other social network could claim to hold so much data on me.

Re: Pandora Versus Last.fm: Features, Interface, Applications Compared

Aaron Wallis — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:00:35 -0000

Last.fm is my fave by far for one obvious reason... Pandora isn't available in Australia :D

Re: Pandora Versus Last.fm: Features, Interface, Applications Compared

Robert — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 13:37:20 -0000

Also Pandora works not only on edge, but also in the basement of my gym... Last.fm not so much.

Re: Pandora Versus Last.fm: Features, Interface, Applications Compared

Crystal — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:27:51 -0000

@Matt - did you just listened to the artist radio on Last.fm instead of creating a playlist of artists and listening to your library radio? i find they play a better, more tailored selection of music (vs. Pandora) when you try it that way. AND you can look up individual songs on Last.fm! can't do that on Pandora. hopefully, one day Last.fm apps will be equivalent to the quality of Pandora's.

Re: Pandora Versus Last.fm: Features, Interface, Applications Compared

Tor Erling — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:13:59 -0000

All that is well and good, this still is a useless article for most people, since it is about a us only product mostly, I don't care how good pandora is, if it doesn't work I'd call it broken. Pandora doesn't work for most people because of the silly little us only thing, that means it is a broken product for most people. Well at least if you do have friends from outside your own country...

Re: Pandora Versus Last.fm: Features, Interface, Applications Compared

Maxime Theriault — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:54:53 -0000

Yep, that's my case as a well as a Canadian. It's unfortunate.