iTunes radio vs. pandora

[maflynn]

I'm enjoying iTunes radio, though I find the music selection to be odd. This is specific to setting up my own "stations"

For instance, I have an AC/DC station in Pandora that plays, well AC/DC but also Led Zeppelin, Ozzy, and other great metal bands from the 70s and 80s. All I did was create a station with ac/dc.

Now with iTunes, I did the same thing, and it plays a healthy mix of ac/dc but then other songs completely out of the genre, like Nirvana. No knock on Nirvana but its not my taste and is not in the same category as metal bands. This is but one example, I also see Foreigner being played as well. I like Foreigner but again I question inclusion in this specific station.

It seems Pandora handles the creation of stations better by selecting more accurate songs.

A quasi gripe/review of iTunes radio.

I'm enjoying iTunes radio (less ads) but find so far Pandora to be a bit better.

 

[weez999]

I've had the same experience. I want so bad for iTunes radio to succeed but I find myself 'falling back' to Pandora from time to time. Heck, I made a station in iTunes radio of The Who. It wasn't until THE SECOND DAY that I heard a Who song! I was like wow, that's bad! I deleted and recreated the station and still rarely hear a song by The Who. Weird...

On the other hand, I created a '90s alternative station that has an ok variety so I then created a station based on Pearl Jam and added all my favorite 90s alt bands and that did the trick.

I don't quite get their algorithms just yet...

 

[mic j]

I want to like it (and use it) also, but really miss the ability to shuffle my various radio stations, like I can in Pandora. I often turn Pandora (shuffled) on for hours. After about 20 minutes of a single iTunes Radio station, I grow weary of it and turn it off.

 

[Old Muley]

I'm having a hard time liking iTunes Radio over Pandora right now. I made a "Neil Young" channel on iTunes Radio and while it played a fair amount of Neil, CSN, CSN&Y and Buffalo Springfield (all of which make sense), it also threw in a lot of folk singers from the 60's and 70's (Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot). iTunes Radio also seemed to like repeating the same songs a lot. There were a couple of stretches where it would repeat the same song with just one song in between plays.

I agree the algorithms used seem a bit odd.

 

[mchalebk]

I want to like it (and use it) also, but really miss the ability to shuffle my various radio stations, like I can in Pandora. I often turn Pandora (shuffled) on for hours. After about 20 minutes of a single iTunes Radio station, I grow weary of it and turn it off.

The answer here is to create an iTunes station and add other artists to it. It will work similarly to the shuffle feature in Pandora.

I do agree that the algorithms in iTunes Radio seem to need some work. The same songs seem to repeat way too much.

 

[weez999]

The answer here is to create an iTunes station and add other artists to it. It will work similarly to the shuffle feature in Pandora.

I do agree that the algorithms in iTunes Radio seem to need some work. The same songs seem to repeat way too much.

They absolutely play songs over and over way too much.

 

[mic j]

The answer here is to create an iTunes station and add other artists to it. It will work similarly to the shuffle feature in Pandora.

I do agree that is a "work around" but it's not nearly as adaptable as Pandora shuffle which I can check/uncheck various stations to vary the mix. I am assuming that iRadio will continue to develop over time, gain capabilities and improve their algorithm. So I am not tossing it to the side but still just find myself going back to Pandora more than Apple would like.