- How Pandora Works
- What You Hear Is What You Get
- It's Free—Sort Of
- Using Pandora on the Web
- Using the Pandora Mobile App
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Using Pandora on the Web
On your computer, you can access Pandora from any Web browser. The stations you've created appear in a list on the left side of the window, with information about the currently playing track and artist in the middle. Playback controls are on top, along with the name of the current track.
To create a new station, simply enter the name of a song, artist, or type of music into the Create Station box at the top left. (You can also make a selection from the list of suggestions Pandora displays as you type.) Pandora then creates the station—in real time—and adds it to your station list.
Pandora now begins playing the first selection from this station. You can pause and control playback with the playback controls at the top of the page, as shown in Figure 2.
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Figure 2 Pandora's playback controls
Information about the current track is displayed in the middle of the page, as you can see in Figure 3. You’ll see the track’s cover art, the name of the track, the artist playing, and the album the track came from. If lyrics for the given track are available, you’ll see them under this main information.
There are three buttons above this track information. Click the Publish button to turn Facebook sharing on or off. Click the Share button to share this track with your friends on Pandora, or to Facebook or Twitter. Click the Buy button to purchase the track from iTunes or Amazon.
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Figure 3 Listening to a track on Pandora
There are a number of ways to fine-tune a given Pandora station. You can do the following:
- Click the Fast Forward (skip) button in the playback controls to skip the current track. This also tells Pandora you don’t like that track.
- Click the thumbs-down button in the playback controls to tell Pandora you don’t like this particular track and to skip to the next track.
- Click the thumbs-up button in the playback controls to tell Pandora that this track is favorable to you.
- Click Add Variety in the left sidebar, directly beneath the name of the station, to display the Add Variety To This Station dialog box. Enter the name of another artist, track, or composer; Pandora will alter the characteristics of this station to match all the people or songs you’ve suggested.
The more effort you put into fine-tuning a station, the more accurate the results. Do a little thumbs-upping and –downing, and you’re bound to discover some new music that you really like.
You can also use Pandora to discover new music and follow what your friends are listening to. Click the Music Feed link above the track info and you see a list of tracks and stations that your friends on Pandora have liked, as shown in Figure 4.
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Figure 4 Viewing your friends' activities in the Music Feed
To add people to this Music Feed, click Find People; this displays a list of your Facebook or Twitter friends who are using Pandora. You can also find specific users by entering a name into the search box at the top of this pane. Click the Follow button next to an individual to add him or her to your Music Feed.