What's the dealy with all these online music streaming services?
I used to use Pandora before the closed it and only serve US locations. I remember it being pretty good at coming up with a fairly strong identity with the songs, so it generally served up a good collection of similar type stuff (and fuckloads of Rush.) It always came across as a more pretentious thing though, with their music experts rating and ranking songs.
I now use Last.FM (€3 a month) and I'm pretty happy with it. I usually use the "Recommended Radio" where it analyses all of what you've listened to and serves songs up. And then I have stations for Cream, for bluesy, crunchy late sixties/early seventies stuff. And I have a "Psychedelic Rock" station for stuff that spans the decades within that genre. I also have a Squarepusher radio for when I want chilled dance stuff, but I haven't listened to that in a while. My biggest complaint about it is that every so often you have to correct it's choices as it seems to reinforce its own selections after each song. So I leave it on for a few hours, and if I had selected cream it could end up on a big Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Derek and the Dominos, The Yardbirds kick. Or it could go more bluesy and start giving me a load of Muddy Waters and that, or it could go more seventies' hard rock. And I'd have to quit and start again to get it to go back to a more mixed playlist. Also, for some fucking reason Kenny Logan turned up singing about crying eagles and flags and patriotism, so that's a fucking black mark against it.
What's the story with the other stations? Has Pandora gotten better or worse? (I might think about getting a proxy for it.) What about Grooveshark and Spotify? Are there any other of these services out there?


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