0668: "Pandora"

[AWA]

Link: http://xkcd.com/668/

Alt-text: What? Oh, no, the 'Enchanted' soundtrack was just playing because Pandora's algorithms are terrible. [silence] ... (quietly) That's how you knooooooow ...

Comment: Never used Pandora, myself; I can find music on my own. *coughYouTubecough*

[recon455]

You should make a comment about the comic when you post a discussion thread...

Anyway, every month since Pandora put a 40 hour/month limit, I have ran out of time.

[glasnt]

This is pretty much http://xkcd.com/400/, but with more excuses.

Excuse me, I have to transform. PTERODACTYL!



From Wiki: Pandora: Type of site Internet radio (restricted to the US)

Ah, fuu. Sounds like a blast to use.

[odog1999]

Ah, Pandora, bringer of lots of bizarre play lists.

[CorruptUser]

Pandora once started playing Blue October's "Dirt Room" as my boss was walking by (everyone is allowed to have music on their computers, except customer service who use a radio).

Luckily I had headphones on, but still.

[Steve the Pocket]

Heck with Pandora; my own music library works this way.

Hey wait... isn't this basically a slightly tweaked retread of the "shuffle" comic, then?

[zjxs]

For some reason I thought Pandora was a deeply embarrassing prog-rock band. That seemed like the most rational explanation. It took me coming here to figure out the comic.

Yet another site/service/technology restricted to the US. Damn you, internets!!

[ideomotion]

http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/enchante ... ouknow.htm Complete with youtube embed of the actual song. It is one of the more embarrassing songs. Good choice.

[rwald]

This comic has the same problem that people are always complaining about regarding Indexed: the entire left circle is "What Pandora Plays," since "What Pandora Plays If Anyone Is Around" is a proper subset of "What Pandora Plays" (unless either no one is ever around or someone is always around, in which case it's only a trivial subset).

[Omegaton]

I don't have Pandora, but I totally have that Enchanted song on my iTunes, which gave me an another layer of amusement.

[mmaluff]

I had never heard of pandora (I just moved to the US this year), but I've been listening to it since this comic came out and now I think I'm in love.

[eviloatmeal]

GAH!!

My mother died in a Pandora related accident, which is also why they will no longer stream to european users.

Not funny, not clever, not a good comic.

[joee]

Hi glasnt!

Also, I will cheat the "now playing" on LJ because it's always something really embarrassing while I'm writing a journal post

[achilleas.k]

I used to use Pandora before they restricted it. It really worked for me (it played songs I didn't know and fit my taste). If you gave it a week to pick up on the styles you liked it could go on for hours without you having to skip a song (or mark one as "don't like"). I kinda miss it. Which one of you US boys will set up his PC as a proxy server for me?

[westrim]

This is pretty much http://xkcd.com/400/, but with more excuses.

From Wiki: Pandora: Type of site Internet radio (restricted to the US)

Ah, fuu. Sounds like a blast to use.

For some reason I thought Pandora was a deeply embarrassing prog-rock band. That seemed like the most rational explanation. It took me coming here to figure out the comic.

Yet another site/service/technology restricted to the US. Damn you, internets!!

AHAHAAHHAHA! BOW before our technological and cultural hegemony! _{Never mind all the holes in that, the cool things NOT available in the US, and the furious work of other nations to surpass us, no just move along, move along...}

GAH!!
My mother died in a Pandora related accident, which is also why they will no longer stream to European users.
Not funny, not clever, not a good comic.

Dude, seriously? That really sucks. I sympathize with your loss. And think that she probably shouldn't have opened that box.

Comment: Never used Pandora, myself; I can find music on my own. *coughYouTubecough*

Truth. All the music I ever found, I found on youtube. Well, I have a few soundtrack pieces too, but those don't count.

[geoffreynham]

Oh gosh, my ex-girlfriend loved that song from Enchanted. It drove me even crazier than "It's A Small World."

[Felshen]

Haha, that comic is way too true

[Winge]

Why is "deeply embarrassing music" written outside the circle, while "what pandora plays" is written inside? Is "music you like" the universe, or does it refer to the left circle?

[PatrThom]

Really? I've found that no matter what seeds I choose, Pandora will eventually offer me either Coldplay or Jack Johnson. In fact, it has become somewhat of a game at work...enter a seed and see how many songs it takes before Pandora serves up either Coldplay or Jack Johnson. Honestly, it has to be at least 80%, if not higher.

--Patrick

[sje46]

I prefer Grooveshark. Until they took the Beatles off. That was all I listened to.

[Ichapp]

I liked Pandora until they closed their doors to Canada and became US only. So I moved on to last.fm. Then last decided to screw us Canadians over as well. Now I just listen to what people recommend. Word of mouth is a great way to discover new music.

When I heard about the 40 hour per week limit on Pandora, I was a bit sad inside, even though they already snubbed me. I still get all of Tim Westergren's Pandora-related newsletters in my old email address.

[poxic]

I always preferred Yahoo Launch. List your favourite artists, then they find other people who also like those artists and play you things that those people like. Last time I tried the service, though, it was either gone or broken.

I tried Pandora once, back when they still liked Canada. They only wanted one artist. I entered Bjork. They gave me Madonna and Jewel. I gave up right then.

[Hopper]

I don't understand this one. I think I'm having problems with the labels.

To me this looks like there are two sets, one is labeled "What Pandora plays" and the other isn't labeled. The intersection of the two sets is labeled "What Pandora plays if anyone is around". Then it looks like the complement of the union of the two sets is labeled twice: once with "Music you like" and once with "Deeply embarrassing music"

I assume I'm missing something; labeling the complement twice makes no sense. Are the two sets supposed to be "Music you like" and "Deeply embarrassing music"? Then what does "What Pandora plays" refer to?

Edit: Thought I should mention that I'm not completely retarded. I know the joke is that Pandora plays embarrassing music when other people are around.

[LTK]

Thought Pandora was a band. The joke isn't much worse for it, anyway. xkcd goes indexed: indexkcd!

['; DROP DATABASE;--]

GAH!!

My mother died in a Pandora related accident, which is also why they will no longer stream to european users.

Not funny, not clever, not a good comic.

are people still saying this

not funny, not clever, not a good meme

[RogueA]

Unfortunately, Graphjam has spoiled me when it comes to graph based humor. The labels are confusing(ly placed), and I don't necessarily find the joke funny at all in this one. It feels overall rushed. Take your time Randall, your comic will turn out much better if you do.

[westrim]

GAH!!

My mother died in a Pandora related accident, which is also why they will no longer stream to European users.

Not funny, not clever, not a good comic.

are people still saying this

not funny, not clever, not a good meme

Damit, just when I think I know all the memes. I figured something was up (as it seemed unlikelier than a snail becoming president of earth, thus my bit of strikethrough), but I didn't realize it was a meme. So everyone knows I didn't fall for it now, right?... RIGHT?

[Al-pocalypse]

I never got on with pandora, it's algorithms didn't tie in with what i looked for in music and it would always take me off on the wrong tangent. So i was one of the few in the UK who was not sad when it became US only.

[keithc]

I don't have Pandora, but I totally have that Enchanted song on my iTunes, which gave me an another layer of amusement.

Why would you only want part of the song? Is it that bad? And shouldn't that really read "I have that Enchanted song on my iTunes in its entirety"? Wouldn't that be more grammatical (though still clunky)?

<pause>

<more pause>

<wait for it>

<nearly there>

<ok, here it is>

yes, I do know what "totally" means in the original context and it is one of the more annoying misuses of language of the young people of today.

(hey, I got sarcasm and language in!)

[TheoGB]

Man, all these replies and no one mentioned SPOTIFY? Surely everyone uses that now to hear any music they want?

[GreatS]

Definitly miss pandora, though I really have to disagree with the comic for once... but that's maybe just me. Oh well...

[GreatS]

Man, all these replies and no one mentioned SPOTIFY? Surely everyone uses that now to hear any music they want?

• Why is Spotify not available in my country?
• Spotify isn't giving any extra's over pandora (at least in the interesting area's)

[guyy]

Man, all these replies and no one mentioned SPOTIFY? Surely everyone uses that now to hear any music they want?

Everyone in Europe, maybe. Doesn't work here in the US, or lots of other places (everywhere except 6 European countries listed here.)

[TheHand]

Murphy's Law man, Murphy's Law.

[achilleas.k]

Well Grooveshark works too, but Pandora was different. At least for me. From all the comments I read here and stuff I heard from other people, it seems that I was one of the few people who were actually happy with the music Pandora picked out for me.

[DragonHawk]

To me this looks like there are two sets, one is labeled "What Pandora plays" and the other isn't labeled. The intersection of the two sets is labeled "What Pandora plays if anyone is around". Then it looks like the complement of the union of the two sets is labeled twice: once with "Music you like" and once with "Deeply embarrassing music"

Yah, I think Randall screwed up. (It happens.) The text "Deeply embarrassing music" should be inside the right-hand circle, not outside it. Like this:



And really, unless you like all embarrassing music, "Music you like" should not be an all-encompassing set (as is shown). (Fixing that would require more than a simple cut/paste, so I'm not bothering.)

[NorthLondon]

Man, all these replies and no one mentioned SPOTIFY? Surely everyone uses that now to hear any music they want?

My thoughts exactly. I used Pandora for that brief, beautiful moment it was available in Europe. But spotify now fills exactly the same music shaped hole in my life. I'm still pretty happy to borrow CDs from friends and family and get exposed to new music that way, as well.

I don't have Pandora, but I totally have that Enchanted song on my iTunes, which gave me an another layer of amusement.

Why would you only want part of the song? Is it that bad? And shouldn't that really read "I have that Enchanted song on my iTunes in its entirety"? Wouldn't that be more grammatical (though still clunky)?

....
yes, I do know what "totally" means in the original context and it is one of the more annoying misuses of language of the young people of today.

(hey, I got sarcasm and language in!)

I'm not sure I count as "young people" any more (having come here from 1981 to tell you this), but I am a big fan of the use of the word "totally" to mean "absolutely" / "wholeheartedly". I, like, totally support it, dude.

[Karilyn]

To me this looks like there are two sets, one is labeled "What Pandora plays" and the other isn't labeled. The intersection of the two sets is labeled "What Pandora plays if anyone is around". Then it looks like the complement of the union of the two sets is labeled twice: once with "Music you like" and once with "Deeply embarrassing music"

Yah, I think Randall screwed up. (It happens.) The text "Deeply embarrassing music" should be inside the right-hand circle, not outside it. Like this:

[url=http://xkcd.com/668/][img]http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/6232/pandorav11.png[img][url]

And really, unless you like all embarrassing music, "Music you like" should not be an all-encompassing set (as is shown). (Fixing that would require more than a simple cut/paste, so I'm not bothering.)

I went ahead and fixed it the whole way.

I can't tell if this is an example of Randel trying to hard and overthinking the Venn Diagram. Or if it is an example of him slapping something together without thought. I've definitely noticed it seems like sometimes he's trying too hard to explain the joke, like he's concerned people won't understand it.

[Ola]

It seems to me that this comic is influenced by http://dieselsweeties.com/archive/1762

Someone might have mentioned that before, it was way to many comments to browse through. I did do a search on "diese" and it came up blank.

//Ola

[tehol]

This is pretty much http://xkcd.com/400/, but with more excuses.
Type of site Internet radio (restricted to the US)

Ah, fuu. Sounds like a blast to use.

QFT

hi glasnt, joee, and that other person