Pandora to Remove 40-Hour Free Listening Limit Ahead of iTunes Radio Launch

[SpinThis!]

Pandora has seemed to be slipping though in it's song selection. I got that annoying 'Blurred Lines' song on a classic rock station.

Probably a crazy fluke but Pandora does seem to "reach" more which is both its strength and its weakness.

Having used both services, I've found iTunes Radio tends to play more of an artist's hits so if you're looking for the most popular music, Apple will have an edge imo.

Pandora, on the other hand, seems to dig a bit more, pulling out less popular songs as well. They are a bit more experimental. iTunes seems to use user reviews quite a bit in its calculation of which songs to play so it'll play a more popular song over a less popular one given the option. I ended up restarting iTunes which seemed to fix the problem.

I used to use Pandora a lot more for music discovery. They seemed to dig a bit more into their catalog but lately I'm not sure if they're not getting as much newish music.

It's hard to slate iRadio since it's still in beta but from what I've used of it, Apple's service has a ways to go before it matches Pandora. iTunes doesn't really offer a "similar artists" feature or song lyrics in its selection (yet). Pandora also has tons of information on the artists in its catalog. Obviously you can google for the info on a band but it's nice to have all that right in front of you while you're listening. Again, if you're just looking for background music with just the hits, iTunes Radio has you covered, not that there's anything wrong with that.

Probably a beta bug, but I listened to iTunes Radio for maybe 5 hours (about 100 or so songs) and all of a sudden the music just stopped. iTunes knows which songs it played previously so you won't hear them again (which is great) but apparently it couldn't find anything new to play. I could visually see it skipping songs it already played.

 

[Luscious]

This announcement is exactly why Apple's iRadio is a good thing even if most users don't think they'll ever use it. I'll probably use it because I'm already an iTunes Match subscriber but even if you are not and never will be the competition is a good thing. It makes everybody up their game like Pandora just did.

 

[DrTwoFish]

Radio + AirPlay

I'm a satisfied Slacker user at the moment (love the cultivated stations), but the big hangup to me is the inability to stream it easily to multiple airplay targets for parties (e.g. receiver in the living room, AE in the kitchen, etc.). I installed airfoil but rarely use it since it's such a PITA. Since iTunes is the one application that Apple generously lets stream to multiple targets (boggles my mind why this isn't system-wide...or supported on the iPhone), I'm guessing iTunes Radio will as well. As long as the stations are decent, that will be enough to get me to switch. Sorry, Slacker.

 

[cclloyd]

I've definitely hit it when I was listening to stations at work all day... But I feel like in lifting this limit, we're gonna get commercials every 3 songs. One way or the other, I'll probably wind up subscribing.

But, wouldn't you just barely hit it if you played it at work all day? Or do you work more than 40 a week?

 

[BarryL]

I've definitely hit it when I was listening to stations at work all day... But I feel like in lifting this limit, we're gonna get commercials every 3 songs. One way or the other, I'll probably wind up subscribing.

My thoughts exactly. They've got to make it up somewhere.