Does anyone else think pandora radio is actually better than last.fm?

VS

I vote Last.FM.

I think Last.FM plays/guesses better music than Pandora. Pandora and Last.fm are two totally different systems. Pandora creates its stations based on some complex musical algorithms which makes all of the songs seem to ‘flow’, e.g. if you start with a quiet acoustic/orchestral track, you’ll get a bunch more quiet acoustic/orchestral tracks after that. The idea being, if you like that ‘sound’ then you’ll like a whole station full of that sound. Trouble is, just because a song has a similar “musical footprint” to a previous track, doesn’t mean I’m instantly going to like it.

Last.fm’s algorithms are based on the user community itself. If you’re listening to an artist’s radio station, it’ll look at all the previous listeners to that artist, work out what else those people listen to, and play you those similar artists. Although the stations don’t necessarily ‘flow’ as well as the Pandora ones, I’ve certainly discovered more new artists at Last.fm, because the tracks are pre-screened against other people with similar tastes to me.

Also, (like Pandora) Last.fm will tailor its stations based on your listening history. You’ve only played 22 tracks so far, so when you select “play me a new station”, Last.fm doesn’t have much to go on. If the radio plays you songs you don’t like, ban them; once you’ve banned a few songs by an artist, that artist will never play again.

One last thing, Pandora made a huge mistake trying to charge for listening and lost a big chunk of their audience. So big, the President sent out an email apologizing for the charges.