# Looking for a Pandora alternative.



## KuJoe (Feb 12, 2014)

My Pandora One annual plan expired this week and I was planning on renewing it but streaming on any desktop is annoying as f*ck because every 5 or 6 songs it will start playing a 2nd song while the other song is still playing forcing me to pause the 2nd song to let the other finish, then I have to stop what I'm doing to bring up the window again to hit play (mostly annoying when I'm working in an RDP session or console window).

So any suggestions out there for something I can stream on my desktop and android phone for a few hours a day without commercials and under $60/year?


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## Taronyu (Feb 12, 2014)

Spotify? Is a bit more expensive tough :/


Send from my iOCEAN X7 using Tapatalk.


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## MannDude (Feb 12, 2014)

Was going to suggest Spotify. Where were you for the TurnTable parties? Been using that site for years and they shut'er down. 

Pandora One is nice, it's what I use now. If your phone has a decent battery life that you wanna drain on tunes, can just stream it from that when in situations where just streaming it normally on a computer isn't possible for you.


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## trewq (Feb 12, 2014)

I've been using Spotify for about 6 months now. About double the price of what you pay now but I've never had any problems with it.


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## howardsl2 (Feb 12, 2014)

There is a 60-day trial promo for Spotify going on from bestbuymobile. See this SD post:
http://slickdeals.net/f/6626884-one-sweet-deal-2-free-months-of-hulu-plus-zinio-and-spotify?


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## nunim (Feb 12, 2014)

Spotify is pretty awesome, the web only version is free (was?).  I believe the Android/mobile version is free now as well, however it is ad supported.


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## Ruchirablog (Feb 12, 2014)

www.sky.fm + www.di.fm subscription is $4.99 per month. Sign up at sky.fm and you can use the same logins to listen di.fm premium. its the same company


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## texteditor (Feb 12, 2014)

Ruchirablog said:


> www.sky.fm + www.di.fm subscription is $4.99 per month. Sign up at sky.fm and you can use the same logins to listen di.fm premium. its the same company


It's been a few years, but I loved having di.fm premium

edit:

wow, they've really stepped up the channel count. A dedicated moombahton channel? lol


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## telephone (Feb 12, 2014)

What OS? and what are you streaming from?

If you're on Linux, I'd recommend trying Pandora via *Pithos*. Just make sure to use *v3.1.7* as the recent version has buffering issues.

It uses the Pandora API, so you can avoid a lot of the fuss along with a minimal CPU/RAM usage.

^ I've been using it for over a year now, and never run into any problems... Although recently I get a 20sec ad every 10 songs (Pandora free account), but heck I can't complain being able to skip without limits on a free account.

The only negative is it only listens to media keys via keyboard, but this can easily be "hacked" using custom key bindings, xdotool, and bash:


#!/bin/bash

function pithos_command {
dbus-send --print-reply --dest=net.kevinmehall.Pithos /net/kevinmehall/Pithos \
net.kevinmehall.Pithos.$1
}

# Check if pithos is running
line=$(ps aux | grep /usr/bin/pithos | grep -v grep)
if [ $? == 1 ]; then
# Send keys as normal
case "$1" in
PlayPause)
$(xdotool key "Super_L+Down")
;;
SkipSong)
$(xdotool key "Super_L+Right")
;;
LoveCurrentSong)
$(xdotool key "Super_L+Up")
;;
TiredCurrentSong)
$(xdotool key "Super_L+Left")
;;
esac
else
# Send commands to Pithos
case "$1" in
PlayPause)
pithos_command PlayPause
;;
SkipSong)
pithos_command SkipSong
;;
LoveCurrentSong)
pithos_command LoveCurrentSong
;;
TiredCurrentSong)
pithos_command TiredCurrentSong
;;
esac
fi


exit 0
You can take the script further, and create a custom launcher... Launch pithos and this script, and then kill it if pithos process isn't found.


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## WebSearchingPro (Feb 12, 2014)

Just an FYI, Spotify has a plan called "Unlimited" for $5.00USD / Month instead of $10. The only difference is not high quality and no phone streaming. However, Spotify has opened up unlimited streaming (with ads) for mobile phones.


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## blergh (Feb 12, 2014)

I can sell you subsonic-access.


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## HalfEatenPie (Feb 12, 2014)

rdio.com? Never used it but Rallias recommended it to me.


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## SC-Daniel (Feb 12, 2014)

Spotify is awesome... I've been using it for over a year now.


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## Magiobiwan (Feb 12, 2014)

Definitely Spotify. Even the free plan is okay. I have Premium and love it.


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## dave (Feb 12, 2014)

I tried Spotify once.  After installing and running, it proceeded to saturate my uplink.  Uninstalled.


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## shovenose (Feb 12, 2014)

Spotify.

They have a web version at play.spotify.com or you can download the computer program or mobile app.

Personally I have both Spotify Premium and Pandora One so I always have something that works


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## mojeda (Feb 12, 2014)

I've always used Anesidora for listening to Pandora on my computers, though because it's a chrome extension it requires google chrome to be used but offers unlimited skips, no ads (even for free users).


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## Awmusic12635 (Feb 12, 2014)

If you don't choose Spotify you could always do iTunes radio:

It is free to use with ads, though if you already have an iTunes match subscription ($25 per year) ads are removed for free.

Works on computer however as you have an android phone it will not stream there, only iOS


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## Aldryic C'boas (Feb 12, 2014)

HalfEatenPie said:


> rdio.com? Never used it but Rallias recommended it to me.


Was it him though, or an imposter?

  But seriously - I recently moved away from Pandora myself (I primarily used it just to expand and find new music to acquire - I run a Subsonic streamer for my own devices).  Giving Google Music a try now - it's a little quirky, and the price is a bit higher than what you're wanting (10$/mo) - but it's doing decently enough so far.  If it doesn't pan out, I'll likely just go the I<3Radio route and browse stations.


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## MartinD (Feb 12, 2014)

Spotify defo. Have a few premium subs for this and the amount of music and features makes it well worth it.


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## tragic (Feb 12, 2014)

I used Spotify across all my computers and phone. It's great and well worth the $9.99/monthly.


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## drmike (Feb 12, 2014)

Is there a Spotify client for Linux that isn't browser based?  Perhaps something like the Pandora client herein above listed... or something with CLI?


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## BuyCPanel-Kevin (Feb 12, 2014)

Doesn't spotify already have a GUI client? (I've never used it, I always use my phone) but I cant imagine it would be too hard to port to linux using something like wine


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## Magiobiwan (Feb 12, 2014)

They have a client in development for Linux. You can install it on Ubuntu. I've had some success running the Windows client in WINE, but... It's running in WINE, so it's not the best.


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## drmike (Feb 12, 2014)

Spotify client for linux   Debian actually...

https://www.spotify.com/us/download/previews/


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## sv01 (Feb 12, 2014)

sh**t


Rdio isn't available in your country just yet

time to use vpn


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## trewq (Feb 12, 2014)

sv01 said:


> sh**t
> 
> 
> Rdio isn't available in your country just yet
> ...


Just had a look at Rdio. Seems to do exactly the same thing as Spotify and costs the same but has less people using it.


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## Dylan (Feb 12, 2014)

Aldryic C said:


> Giving Google Music a try now - it's a little quirky, and the price is a bit higher than what you're wanting (10$/mo) - but it's doing decently enough so far.


Google Play Music All Access (ugh, what a mouthful) beats Spotify hands down IMO. The streaming catalogs are virtually identical, but with Google, and this is a huge but, you can also upload your own music (or, hell, any audio files) to your library and then stream it anywhere. Google's Android app and web player are also much better than Spotify's.


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## kaniini (Feb 12, 2014)

Google Play All Access is better than Spotify, at least in terms of the radio capabilities.  I'm happier with it over Spotify.


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## KuJoe (Feb 12, 2014)

I've been buying a lot of music on Google Play (mainly because I have so much credit and don't need any apps) so maybe the All Access is the better route. I do hate how hard it is to close any apps by Google on Android but I guess that's better than listening to two songs at once.


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## Hxxx (Feb 12, 2014)

RHAPSODY is the BOSS. Premium content, no ads, you select what you want from each album, you also may download the files to your phone


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## Dylan (Feb 13, 2014)

KuJoe said:


> I've been buying a lot of music on Google Play (mainly because I have so much credit and don't need any apps) so maybe the All Access is the better route. I do hate how hard it is to close any apps by Google on Android but I guess that's better than listening to two songs at once.


You can get a 30-day trial before you're charged, so you can always give it a go and cancel (wallet.google.com>subscribtions) if you don't like it.


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## Aldryic C'boas (Feb 13, 2014)

KuJoe said:


> I do hate how hard it is to close any apps by Google on Android but I guess that's better than listening to two songs at once.


You don't enable force-kill?  Or am I misunderstanding your intent?


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## Srvify (Feb 13, 2014)

Does Spotify have the same issue as pandora with mixing music styles between channels?

I had to cancel my account and create a new one because it kept playing metal on country stations.


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## KuJoe (Feb 13, 2014)

hrr1963 said:


> RHAPSODY is the BOSS. Premium content, no ads, you select what you want from each album, you also may download the files to your phone


I wish I never cancelled my Rhapsody subscription, it was only around $40/year and well worth it.



Aldryic C said:


> You don't enable force-kill?  Or am I misunderstanding your intent?


Can you explain more about this?


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## Aldryic C'boas (Feb 13, 2014)

There's an option you can enable in Android (developer settings maybe?  I don't recall where it is offhand, and my phone's in the other room >_>).  But what it does it you press and hold the 'Back' button/key, and it force-kills the current app.


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## KuJoe (Feb 13, 2014)

Aldryic C said:


> There's an option you can enable in Android (developer settings maybe?  I don't recall where it is offhand, and my phone's in the other room >_>).  But what it does it you press and hold the 'Back' button/key, and it force-kills the current app.


Oh I miss that feature, it was on my older phones but not my latest 2.


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## Shados (Feb 14, 2014)

KuJoe said:


> I've been buying a lot of music on Google Play (mainly because I have so much credit and don't need any apps) so maybe the All Access is the better route. I do hate how hard it is to close any apps by Google on Android but I guess that's better than listening to two songs at once.


To confirm, are you aware of the technical differences in app/process management between Android and Windows/Linux/OS X? Generally speaking you probably shouldn't be 'killing' off apps in Android unless you explicitly know they are actively consuming CPU or radio time.

Memory-wise, any process that isn't either part of the active app or a 'foreground' service (i.e. one that has an _active notification_ in the notification bar) can and will be killed by the memory management subsystem as needed. Generally, this subsystem will do a better job at maintaining performance than any person acting manually.


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## blergh (Feb 14, 2014)

drmike said:


> Is there a Spotify client for Linux that isn't browser based?  Perhaps something like the Pandora client herein above listed... or something with CLI?


despotify


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## Taronyu (Feb 14, 2014)

KuJoe said:


> I wish I never cancelled my Rhapsody subscription, it was only around $40/year and well worth it.
> 
> 
> Can you explain more about this?


I just wanted to try Rhapsody and it isn't available in my country  (the Netherlands)


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## wlanboy (Feb 19, 2014)

Taronyu said:


> I just wanted to try Rhapsody and it isn't available in my country  (the Netherlands)


Yup all well done services are not available in europe (outside of the UK).

Still searching...


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## blergh (Feb 19, 2014)

wlanboy said:


> Yup all well done services are not available in europe (outside of the UK).
> 
> Still searching...


What kind of content are you mostly interested in?


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## wlanboy (Feb 20, 2014)

blergh said:


> What kind of content are you mostly interested in?


Audio books (travel times...) and music made before the year 2000.


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## fisle (Feb 20, 2014)

For spotify and linux there's also interesting project called mopidy. It's a custom MPD server. "Mopidy is a music server which can play music both from multiple sources, like your local hard drive, radio streams, and from Spotify and SoundCloud."

So you can use your favourite MPD client with it, be it ncmpcpp or sonata or whatever


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## JavaPipe.Josh (Feb 20, 2014)

Although it is more similar to SoundCloud than Pandora, have you seen the likes of Baboom? http://baboom.com/


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