Let's talk Pandora, Slacker, internet radio as a whole, and if satellite radio can realistically compete long-term

Pandora - Good service, but not very 'deep'. I swear that every station I build I get a Shins song each hour. I do like that you often get live tracks or b-sides though.

Slacker - Seems 'clumsier' than Pandora, I gave up on it a while back. The reviews for the Android app are less than stellar.

Honestly I prefer Itunes Genius to these services...I get a good amount of new music, often not fully digesting every album, and Genius can sort of remind me of those albums I had forgotten. I don't know if Apple has some sort of patent on it (seems unlikely) but have been waiting for an App that can do that for Android.

I also subscribe to Sirius, that is probably where my biggest exposure to new music comes from.

I think going forward satellite radio is clearly doomed, launching satellites is just not cost effective. Once WiMax becomes more prevalent (or other 4G services) it will no longer make any sense.

Ask and ye shall receive

http://mixzing.com/

Spotify is supposedly the best, although not available in the USA.

My car came equipped with Sirius/XM, but I have no desire to subscribe to it.

Radio is pointless for me.

All of these options are lightyears better than terrestrial radio was and is, at least on content. Anytime I think about driving around in one of my old cars in Madison or Atlanta listening to whatever garbage was available over the air, I have a hard time complaining too hard about any of the choices available now.

XM was pretty great because I often heard new stuff that was good. Too bad I didn't love it enough to pay for it. The radio came in my wife's car and when I listen to radio, I generally don't have access to a view of satellites.

I don't like Pandora because, once I put in an artist, that artist comes up ALL the time. I've recently been trying it out again, just for the exposure of new stuff, but it hasn't played any new stuff.

Has anyone used iMeem?

I used that mixzing on my Android and liked it as a music player, but I haven't tried out the recommendations. Does it actually download or stream music to sample, or just give me a list of songs/ artists that I may be interested in?

edit: I seem imeem has died because they were bought by Myspace.

I don't do a lot of internet radio, but when I do it's always last.fm or good ole KEXP

I agree about the future of satellite radio and I was wondering the other day if any other company will be able to use the XM hardware that is coming pre-installed on a lot of new cars...that's got to be a pretty large base of people and if you could use the hardware that is already there to provide a Pandora-like service, that would be great...but I have no idea how propietary that hardware is, so I may be in unicorn-land with this one

otherwise, my satellite radio gear is never going to be used

I've subscribed to XM-now-SiriusXM for 5 years and find out about a lot of new music through Sirius XMU. I'll be sad when it eventually goes away, annoying DJ's and all.

Pandora I only occasionally use on my phone when I forget my iPod at work. I occasionally use Last.fm on my Xbox 360 or also at work. Both are good options in a pinch, though I don't usually find new music through them, just a mix of tunes from artists I already dig.

I cringe when I'm in a car and we listen to regular radio.

I use Pandora when I'm on my work computer and away from my desk (don't store music on the work machine). It's serviceable when I need something to listen to but it does repeat the same artists all the time and I rarely discover anything new or interesting on it. Still, it's probably the best of the services I've found.

For those that have the hardware and aren't using it...or for those that already have it...

You can get 5 months of Sirius/XM for $20

Not per month - total

See here http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/topic_v ... &start=120