Spurned
Back in 2006 when I met the product called Sirius, I was enchanted. It was a whole new way of listening to radio. Fewer commercials, more choices, and lots of stations that let me listen to whatever I wanted to whenever I wanted to.
For several years, we were together, and musically I was very happy.
Over time, the renewal price of my Sirius subscription started going up and the quality of the programing starting going down. During the time I took a sabbatical from work, I looked for every possible way to cut costs.
So I broke up with Sirius.
Sirius had a hard time with the end of our relationship. Sirius didn’t really want to let me go. Sirius still calls, email and snail mails me several times a week.
Bright yellow envelopes in my mailbox shout “We want you back!”
No, honestly, they actually say that. It’s weird. Soon Sirius will start writing me bad poetry.
Well I’ve been back on the job for a while now and while I *could* sign up again with Sirius, I just don’t want to. I’m over Sirius.
The trouble is, there hasn’t been a respectable suitor to take its place. I listen to some form of music in my office while I work all day (we’re talking a good eight to ten hours a day of music) and I have tried just about every local radio station I can get. They all suck.
So I did what I usually do. I whined to The Good Man.
Who replied, “Have you tried Pandora?”
Why no…I hadn’t.
So I downloaded the free application to my iPhone and started listening.
Last week I finally dug down into the instructions and figured out how to not just listen to the stations already set up, but instead program my own station.
Oh my. I’m in love.
Deep love.
I am all about Pandora, now. ALL. ABOUT. PANDORA.
Sorry Sirius. You can’t have me back. I’m with Pandora now.
And I like it.
** By the way, I wasn’t paid for this, I just wanted to talk about my feelings.**
Comments
Ephraim F. Moya
Chiquita,
Have you tried last.fm?
It’s similar to pandora. FWIW.
Regards,
El Viejo
Karen Fayeth
Viejo – No, I’ve not tried last.fm. Is it like Pandora in that it takes what you like and recommends other music? Have you used it?
Just curious. I’m always looking for options.
Ephraim F. Moya
Chica,
I used both a couple of years ago. I don’t think there’s much difference between them.
Last.fm is older so it has a better chance of working better since software is always being improved.
I don’t have any mobile computers so I do all my music listening at home. For that I use a free program called ‘Songbird’ at home. It plays music from my own collection. I recommend Songbird if you have a bunch of cds.
Regards,
El Viejo
Karen Fayeth
Viejo – If I’m listening to my own collection at home, I usually just put iTunes on shuffle. But I don’t want to keep my iTunes collection at work, and since Pandora works so well on my iPhone over the work wifi, it’s a great solution.
Plus, while I have a pretty healthy collection, it’s not super robust. So Pandora gives me a lot of music I don’t have but love.
As they say here in the office, it’s a win-win. ;)
Ephraim F. Moya
Chica,
It’s coming back to me why I stopped using Pandora and last.fm. I like, most of all, to listen to a variety of different music. For instance, Zydeco followed by an operatic aria followed by Doris Day followed by Chuck Berry followed by etc. Pandora and last.fm don’t have a ‘variety’ button so you’re stuck listening to similar music all the time. If your first choice when you turn on your machine is Motley Crue, the rest of the day is full of Motley Crue.
Since my mp3 collection is about 3000 long I can go all day without repeating any tune.
Regards,
El Viejo
ps. What’s your favorite song of all time?