I’ve been a paid Pandora.com subscriber for a couple of months. Well before Pandora One came out. I did this because the value of the services I got was more then worth the small yearly fee that I was asked to pay for.
I was surprised to login one day last week to find a new menu called Pandora One.
So lets get down to the new options that come with this service.
1. Custom Skins – You can now change the background of your Pandora account to a few select tasteful graphics. Nice to be able to put in a Kiosk type window for parties.
2. Pandora Mini Window – This will create a small Web window of the Pandora site so you don’t need to take up so much space. Its again nice, but this still uses the web browser that can crash at times like all other web browsers.
3. Audio Quality – Now you can update your stream quality to 192kbits.
4. Pandora’s Air application – This is a really nice feature that I am enjoying a lot. Unlike the web browser that takes up a bit more memory then it should, the Air App runs nice and small and still allows for the great features of Pandora in one small window. When the music changes a short timed display comes up in the upper right hand corner giving some information about the new song.
So is Pandora One worth it? Yes. Not only is the above options good add ons but the paid solution of no Advertisements and the ability to skip songs 6 times per channel in 1 hour.
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>If I become a paid subscriber to Pandora does it work w/ multiple computers? How bout Blackberry access? (using the same loginID/password) Does Pandora One update on each of these computers as well?
Not sure if you have all the answers, but you seem pretty knowledgeable. I love Pandora and have wanted to become a paying member for sometime. The 40 hr/mo. limit is just pushing me over the hump!
>Hi Chris! Yes it works with multiple computers. I wouldn't test it with multiple at the same time though. That could be considered abuse of the system. I don't have a blackberry to test with but it works well on my HTC Touch. The Pandora One is attached to your account so if your logged in with the privileged account you will see all the same benefits you get.
I would highly suggest getting the subscription to Pandora. One it takes away all the limitations that they have to add, and two it supports the great services they are providing. I don't want to them to go away so I'll pay to keep them.
>If I upgrade to Pandora One and my wife and I have the iPhone App on each of our phones can we both be listening at the same time using the same Pandora One account?
>Hi Chris,
I'm not sure if you can listen to both at the same time. Try it and let me know.
>Thanks for this review!!
>In #3, do you mean 192 kbps?
Also, one of the screen shots looks like an ubuntu notification. If so, how easy was the install and how thorough the integration?
>Hi Topher, Yes thank you for the correction.
This is a Windows 7 Beta install. The notification window is part of Adobe Air.
>lol. ya'll are paying so you can skip 6 songs an hour. groove shark is free and you choose the music. Don't submit to the RIAA. And don't let pandora force feed you music that just sounds alike but isn't the same. Its not that hard to find good music for yourself. But if you struggle, check out independent radio stations like kcsb dot org and let real people, not machines, show you what music means. Machines and computer programs can't hear. Music only exists in the HUMAN mind. If you must, listen to pandora every once and a while, but to let your musical world be dominated by a crude algorhythm is an abomination. It is antithetical to the meaning of music. In the words of fela kuti, music is a spiritual gift! You wouldn't pray to a computer program or believe in its answers to your prayers (or would you?) so don't let one tell you what music to listen to. Again, music is a spiritual gift! Know this, and change the way you listen.
>Thanks for the very detailed review Christopher! One question I would like to ask is on the regular Pandora songs repeat a lot in a short time frame (about 3 times in an 8 hour period) regardless that the station is mixed. Is there a greater variety of songs offered by Pandora One?
>Hi Pizzalisa,
I believe this depends on how you program your station. What you thumb up or down. You can also select to not hear a song again in a station. I have a Broadway station that seems to think that I continually like to hear a certain Shows songs, but I was able to stop one of the songs that I really didn't like from popping back up.
Also you can select the QuickMix option to have songs from all your other stations to be mixed into one channel so you shouldn't hear anything repeat for quite sometime.
Hope this helps.
Chris
>Do you know how long your contract lasts?
>Hello Anon,
1 year. I just reupped my subscription recently.
Christopher
>Pandora is the best when coupled with my Blackberry and a Blue tooth transmitter in my car (available from Motorola).
I play Pandora on my Blackberry, which feeds the Blue tooth, and then transmits via FM radio to my car radio.
Basically free satellite radio. Great for those that work in their cars.
>I don't agree only because the competition allows your computer and phone to cache the music if upgraded and remove ads to save battery life. I would love to see Pandora One allow caching.
>I suggest checking out http://www.slacker.com – Slacker radio Plus – $48 per year – has unlimited skips and better station customization for me at least. Another alternative to look at is http://www.accuradio.com – completely free and has unlimited skips and very good customization. I like pandora as well but to me it's just not worth my money unless they give me unlimited skips.