Coffee Dharma

Slacker Versus Pandora

Posted on Jun 04, 2009 by Rob in All, Older, Review
6 Comments

I’ve been asked quite a few times why I prefer Pandora Radio over Slacker Radio.  I’ve had a hard time explaining what it is about Pandora’s music choices I liked more.  I received an email from someone from Slacker Radio asking if I would do a direct comparison of the two services and point out the song choices I preferred.  It took about an hour to set up the test, but the results confirmed my choice and helped show exactly what I meant by the different song choices.  For the comparison I set up two stations on each service.  The first was a fully customized station featuring a handful of the same artist feeds.   I then played 10 songs on this station and wrote them down.  I made notes about three factors:

1. If the song fit the station (was a good choice)
2. What seed artist (if any) was likely used to determine the song choice.
3. Is the song popular or obscure.

I then duplicated this same station (same artist feeds, same settings on the other service and again played 10 songs.

The second station was a simple artist station.  I picked Pearl Jam and left it to the default settings.  I played 10 songs and marked the same notes about each.  This was repeated on each service.

Here’s the first set of stations:

Slacker – Fine Tuned (More Discovery, Popular Songs, Auto Year)

Bands include: Bad Religion, Descendents, Me First & The Gimme Gimmes, NOFX, No Use For A Name, Rancid, Social Distortion, The Dropkick Murphys, The Misfits

01. I Was Wrong – Social Distortion (song fits, based on Social Distortion, popular song)
02. The Sunnyside of the Street – The Pouges (song fits, based on Dropkick Murphys, somewhat popular song)
03. Round and Round – The Germs (song fits, based on multiple bands, somewhat popular song)
04. No Face – The Suicide Machines (song fits, based on multiple bands, popular song)
05. Party Down – Reel Big Fish (Song doesn’t quite fit, possibly based on Rancid (wrong sound), popular song)
06. Bloodclot – Rancid (song fits, based on Rancid, somewhat obscure song)
07. Spare Change – Mad Caddies (song does not fit, possibly based on Rancid (seems to be on a ska kick), somewhat popular song)
08. Hard Candy C**k – G.G. Allin (song fits, based on Descendents (multiple bands), obscure song)
09. Blacklist – The Briggs (song fits, based on No Use for a Name (multiple bands), somewhat obscure song)
10. Could You Be the One? – Husker Du (song doesn’t fit, right genre (wrong sound), somewhat popular song)

Here is the same station on Pandora:

Pandora – Fine Tuned

Bands include: Bad Religion, Descendents, Me First & The Gimme Gimmes, NOFX, No Use For A Name, Rancid, Social Distortion, The Dropkick Murphys, The Misfits

01. The Dregs of Society – No Use For A Name (song fits, based on No Use For A Name, popular song)
02. Just Like Heaven – GoldFinger (song fits, based on multiple bands, popular song)
03. Voices Off Camera – Rise Against (song fits, based on multiple bands, popular song)
04. Anna Lee – Strung Out (song fits, based on multiple bands, somewhat obscure song)
05. Kate Is Great – Bouncing Souls (song fits, based on multiple bands, popular song)
06. Go Your Own Way – NOFX (song fits, based on NOFX, somewhat obscure song)
07. 99 Red Balloons – Goldfinger (song fits, based on MFGG, popular song)
08. Talk Dirty To Me – Jughead’s Revenge (song fits, based on MFGG, popular song)
09. Rawhide – Dead Kennedys (Song kind of fits, based on MFGG (on a cover song kick), somewhat obscure song)
10. Spook City USA (no link) – The Misfits (song fits, based on Misfits, popular song)

Custom built stations:  While both services offered mostly correct song choices, I found Slacker seemed to be fitting genre more than style.  If you look at the custom set stations, Slacker’s song choices were the right genre every time (punk), but they sometimes had little else in common as far as sound.  Pandora’s choices for the same station were exactly fitting to the sound style of the bands seeded.  They both went on a tangent for a few songs, but Slacker went in a ska/swing direction, while Pandora simply followed one of the seeded band styles for a few songs.  I think the song selections for both services were excellent, but if a listener was looking for a station that fit their seeded bands style more than just a genre match, Pandora offered better songs and took less effort to create the station.

Here is the Slacker Pearl Jam station.  These use the default settings and show what a “pure” station would sound like:  I only used the “song fits”, “right sound/genre”, “popularity” notes for these stations and they should obviously be based on Pearl Jam’s sound.

Slacker – Pearl Jam – No Settings

01. Elderly Woman… – Pearl Jam (song fits, popular song)
02. Perfect – Smashing Pumpkins (song fits, right sound/genre. somewhat obscure song)
03. What the Hell Have I – Alice In Chains (song fits, right sound/genre, somewhat obscure song)
04. Rearviewmirror – Pearl Jam (song fits, popular song)
05. Miss World – Hole (song fits, right genre, popular song)
06. Cold Contagious – Bush (not an exact fit, right genre, somewhat obscure song)
07. Shelf In the Room – Days of the New (song fits, right genre, popular song)
08. Black – Pearl Jam (song fits, popular song)
09. I Got a Girl – Tripping Daisy (song fits, right genre, somewhat obscure song)
10. High – Feeder (not an exact fit, right genre, somewhat obscure song)

Here is the same station on Pandora:

Pandora – Pearl Jam – No Settings

01. Daughter – Pearl Jam (song fits, popular song)
02. Under The Bridge – Red Hot Chili Peppers (song fits, right sound/genre, popular song)
03. Creep – Radiohead (song fits, right sound/genre, popular song)
04. In Bloom – Nirvana (song fits, right sound/genre, popular song)
05. Who You Are – Pearl Jam (song fits, somewhat obscure song)
06. Monkey Wrench – Foo Fighters (song fits, right sound/genre, popular song)
07. Tangerine – Led Zeppelin (No fit at all, wrong genre, popular song)
08. Be Yourself – Audioslave (song fits, right sound/genre, somewhat obscure song)
09. Hunger Strike – Temple Of The Dog (song fits, right sound/genre, popular song)
10. Lake of Fire – Nirvana (song fits, right sound/genre, popular song)

Artist stations:  Both services did an excellent job following the style/genre with the Pearl Jam station (except for Pandora’s random Led Zeppelin entry).  I found Pandora was offering more popular hits compared to Slacker.  This could be a plus or minus depending on how it’s looked at.  If the listener is looking to discover more obscure songs from the same genre, Slacker was the clear winner.  If the listener was looking for hits within the same genre/sound, Pandora offered more.  It really depends on what the listener is looking for in their station.  I simply find Pandora matches artist music style better than Pandora, but at the sacrifice of obscure discovery.  This may have a lot to do with Slacker’s much larger music pool.

There you have it.  It truly is up to your tastes.  I prefer Pandora right now, but could easily see why some prefer Slacker.  Slacker offers far more control over your custom stations and if you fine tune it exactly to your taste you could get the perfect sound.  Pandora offers a nicer setup out of the box, but is limited on extra custom controls on custom stations.

Tags: Music, Pandora, Review, Slacker, Software, Tech