• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Pandora VS Last.fm

stinky

stinky

Android Enthusiast
I tried searching for a topic like this here, but didnt seem to find anything major about it.

What is your preference, Pandora or Last.fm, and most importantly, why? This can be for PC/Mac or Android use.

I have been using Pandora for a few days and have been blown away by what artists it is bringing to me. After putting in 2 bands and liking/not liking about a dozen, it is really nailing the particular music I enjoy.

After realizing that the free version has a monthly time limit, I decided to check out Last.fm and see what that hype is about. Been listening for a while today and so far it isnt really hitting any spots with me. I put in more artists to begin with, thinking it would help pinpoint what I enjoy, but it seems to have picked up one artist over the others and playing songs similar to that artist but not from that artist.

Also the sound quality of Pandora seems to be more consistent, last.fm one song is louder then the next is super quiet, stuff like that.

So far I am leaning towards Pandora, what are your thoughts? Also if anyone has specific comparison statistics like trial period vs free, features, quality, mobile use, etc.
 
i dont like pandora for the only fact you get 6 skips per hour...

im a very picky person, even with my own itunes playlist on my computer. so using a service i have NO control over what plays really bothers me
 
DanSan said:
i dont like pandora for the only fact you get 6 skips per hour...

im a very picky person, even with my own itunes playlist on my computer. so using a service i have NO control over what plays really bothers me
Click to expand...

Yea I didnt like it when I reached my limit for the first time and couldnt skip again. That with the time limit per month is why I got last.fm as a backup.

I am very picky as well, I have lots of playllists on my iTunes and am always downloading new albums and discographies. Lately I have been getting sick of the same music I have had and Pandora seems to give me a fix of something new that I like without sounding like a repeat radio station or songs I already have.
 
they both have their pro's and con's.

pandora has a really nice gui, but only has 6 skips. I also find it playing the same 6 or 7 artists over and over and over and over and over and over and over, and I hear the same song more than once in a day.

last.fm plays more artists, so you get a more variety, which i love. i get to hear more different artists on last.fm, which is what both last.fm and pandora were designed for, discovering new music, not hearing the same stuff. the gui is really crowded though. and there is alot to look at, which isnt always a good thing.
 
I need to check out last.fm

Pandora is good but it plays the about 5 different artist on each station I create which makes it boring sometimes
 
Pandora is slowly slipping.

One of my channels it has been playing the same artists over and over, which was ok at first, but they are only playing a limited portion of the artists collection so I am getting lots of repeat songs. It seems like it played more variety the first day, then it slowly started into a cycle of repetition.

Last.fm on the other hand, even though I gave it more artists, it still feels the need to stick with a certain style of songs that i am not liking. It does play a larger collection of artists, but it seems to be missing the mark of what I wanted.

I might have to create new channels and see what happens.
 
I used to love Pandora and hate Last.FM, but I'm leaning the other way now. The problem I always had with Last.FM is that it would play music that other people liked based on what I was currently listening to. This didn't always work very well, because I would have specific artists and songs that I enjoyed, but was not at all interested in most other music that their fans enjoyed. That's why I preferred Pandora. It picked music that was technically similar, not socially similar.

Recently, though, Last.FM has been giving me better playlists, not playing a lot of crap, and (as far as I know) allows me to skip as many songs as I want. Pandora won't let me do that, and it seems to have been repeating a lot of songs lately; nothing like it used to do. I'm kind of disappointed, but with the way Last.FM has been for me lately, I'll probably just switch over to that.

I have Grooveshark, too, but I don't really know how it works and haven't played with it too much.
 
I'd make sure you try both because the differences are subtle in some ways.

First, for the Pandora folks having repeatorama issues, there's a fairly simple fix. Visit the full Pandora site, authenticate, click your current station and you should see a little "add variety..." button. For example, if you started a station with "The Who" and find that they are playing too much of "The Who", clicking the "add variety..." and entering new band(s) like "Yes" will infuse new music to your station.

I prefer Last.fm, personally, but that should really mean nothing to you because you and I are different folks. If you must ask, the previously mentioned "Skip" and usage limits on Dora and because I'm a scrobbler. And I like that I can scrobble to my Last.fm feed from outside apps like Amarok.

Both have social aspects: Dora.fm in the case of Pandora. Must say, that it does, still, blow me away that there isn't a decent Facebook scrobbler app for Last.fm. (Unless someone knows of a new one that actually "works.")

So do this: Flip a coin and pick one. Confine yourself to THAT service only for 30 days. Also do your best to try to USE it daily. Kick the tires, that sort of thing. Then for the next 30 days confine yourself to the other.

In the end you'll know. You know?
Christopher
 
I am in love with Pandora. Love it so much, I cancelled my XM subscription a few days ago.

As for the "skips" issue, when I reach the 6/hr limit, I simply change channels. Problem solved. YMMV
 
messenger13 said:
I am in love with Pandora. Love it so much, I cancelled my XM subscription a few days ago.

As for the "skips" issue, when I reach the 6/hr limit, I simply change channels. Problem solved. YMMV
Click to expand...

lol good one.
 
Personally I prefer Last.fm.
You don't get the commercials nor the monthly time limit that Pandora has. Also, the variety that Last.fm has is greater than what Pandora has given me thus far.

Now as far as the Android app, it's up in the air right now. Last.fm's app still has the perks that it does on the PC, but there are connectivity issues i've found with it. Pandora's app runs smoother, and doesn't have commercials, but need improvement on the bands it bring me too.
 
I have accounts on both and prefer Pandora. They're both great services but Pandora just matches my tastes more. It's almost scary how it predicts my taste and plays a song I love or a new song that I really like. On Last.fm I skip a lot. It has a nice social networking feature but I already do enough of that anyway.

I also use Grooveshark which I really like. I wonder how it is before they get pressured enough to start playing commercials and such.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom