Amazon Echo Club

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Ok quick guide.
Type someone you like into create station.
Pick the best match.
Then beside that radio station, tap the three dots.
Then station detail.
Then add variety.
You can add artists or songs.
Hope this helps.

That is one of my problems. Things like Thumbprint and Add Variety options are not there. I cannot see them. I tried in the iPad and iPhone apps and on my MacBook Pro via the website. The website states it is the new version and they haven't added the ability to create stations yet. I cannot find a link to the Classic website. Very frustrating! Their help is text only and they talked about the options you mentioned, but the options are not showing up anywhere. They really need to show some screen captures in the help. It all sounds easy to do, but not so much if those options are missing.

What I would love to create is a super station that was based on a few dozen performers and bands. All I can see is creating one based on a single performer/band or song or genre. That kind of station would be too limited for my tastes. I get bored with stations that only play a handful of performers and bands and just keep adding more songs from them rather than featuring songs from hundreds of performers and bands. I guess my old school idea of a radio station must be way different from what Pandora calls a radio station. Amazon was just a bad in that regard. I really don't like hearing the same performer every 5th or 6th song.

[Cinisajoy]

Turn the IPad to landscape mode. It doesn't show up in portrait mode.
Yes I just tried it.
Hope this helps.

[booklover6]

My comment about stations here does not apply to the Echo, but Sirius XM radio has great stations.

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Turn the IPad to landscape mode. It doesn't show up in portrait mode.
Yes I just tried it.
Hope this helps.

Thanks! I discovered the problem this morning. I was already using landscape BTW. The problem was trying to use the Create button to create a station. Apparently all that did was allow me to rename Pandora's own Classic Rock Radio station, which I was listening to at the time. It would not allow me to modify it. But when I create a radio station from a song I get the Add Variety button and all the stuff seems to be there. I'm going to try to create a super station by adding performers and bands from various rock genres. It is truly a clunky, kluge interface. I guess the Millennials who coded it were use to their helicopter mommies doing everything for them so they just don't have a clue as to how to create a truly good interface. I'm retired from spending over 25 years in the software industry with companies like Computer Associates, IBM, BMC Software, etc. So I get upset with the current crop of developers who cannot seem to understand UI design or why it is so darn important.

Originally Posted by booklover6

My comment about stations here does not apply to the Echo, but Sirius XM radio has great stations.

Yes they do! I'm actually wanting to build a few radio stations like theirs. My current car doesn't have a satellite radio or I would have gone back to them. I could install a little radio add-on, but then I would have to run a wire for DC power, a 2.5mm audio cable between add-on and my car radio, and the wire to the antenna. I just cannot stand having all those wires running and out in the open like that. Plus SiriusXM is activated for one radio only, and it costs way too much. I did like it though in my previous car which came with a satellite radio.

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Turn the IPad to landscape mode. It doesn't show up in portrait mode.
Yes I just tried it.
Hope this helps.

BTW, when I click the create button and type in "rock" I get the following list to choose from:

• One top hit item
• Three artists to choose from
• One track item
• Five sub-genres to choose from
• Three brand stations to choose from

That is all that pops up in the list. Not much to pick from, and those items are mostly useless in my case. There is no button to display more items. So creating from a genre is really kluge. BTW, if you select any of the items on their suggestion list it merely adds one of Pandora's standard radio stations, which of course you cannot edit. Arrgh!!!! I really don't understand why they could not have created an interface where you could display all of your thumbs up songs from all of your stations and scroll through that list and select checkboxes beside the items you want to include as Add Variety items. Simple, intuitive, fast, no mess. But no, they chose to create a terrible, non-intuitive UI.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by jswinden

BTW, when I click the create button and type in "rock" I get the following list to choose from:

• One top hit item
• Three artists to choose from
• One track item
• Five sub-genres to choose from
• Three brand stations to choose from

That is all that pops up in the list. Not much to pick from, and those items are mostly useless in my case. There is no button to display more items. So creating from a genre is really kluge. BTW, if you select any of the items on their suggestion list it merely adds one of Pandora's standard radio stations, which of course you cannot edit. Arrgh!!!! I really don't understand why they could not have created an interface where you could display all of your thumbs up songs from all of your stations and scroll through that list and select checkboxes beside the items you want to include as Add Variety items. Simple, intuitive, fast, no mess. But no, they chose to create a terrible, non-intuitive UI.

Last night I got more, today I got what you did. You are right about it being unfriendly. Sometimes I think the new database designers do not know how the average person does a search.
Or oh you are looking for jelly, let me show you some air fresheners (or some other such nonsense. ).

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Last night I got more, today I got what you did. You are right about it being unfriendly. Sometimes I think the new database designers do not know how the average person does a search.
Or oh you are looking for jelly, let me show you some air fresheners (or some other such nonsense. ).

LOL! That is what Amazon.com does to me all the time.

Well I'm finally into the groove of creating a radio station. I'm working on a super station right now. I've added 25 artists now, and plan to add perhaps 2 to 3 times that number, assuming I don't hit a Pandora limit. I don't want to accidentally open Pandora's Box and unleash hell on earth! But it is slow go. I wish it was easier adding variety. Currently you have to scroll down to the bottom of the list of variety items just to press the Add Variety button. Every time you add another item the list gets longer. Another stupid UI design oversight. They need to place the Add Variety button at the top of the list. But at least I'm making progress, and I'm creating a spreadsheet with all the artists that I add just in case it all gets blown away in a Pandora temper tantrum of some kid!

Finally up and running with a custom Pandora radio station called Jack Radio. I spent quite a few hours creating Jack Radio and adding 68 artists/bands so far. Then I opened the Alexa app on my iPad and went to Settings --> Music & Media --> Choose Default Music Service and set that to Pandora. Now I can listen to my super station by saying, "Alexa play Jack Radio on Pandora". Pretty cool after you get past the learning curve, terrible UI's, and multiple limitations and quirks on both Alexa and Pandora. I must say that Pandora is doing a fairly good job of playing similar artists to the large list of ones I added. I would like better controls on excluding certain ones though.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Finally up and running with a custom Pandora radio station called Jack Radio. I spent quite a few hours creating Jack Radio and adding 68 artists/bands so far. Then I opened the Alexa app on my iPad and went to Settings --> Music & Media --> Choose Default Music Service and set that to Pandora. Now I can listen to my super station by saying, "Alexa play Jack Radio on Pandora". Pretty cool after you get past the learning curve, terrible UI's, and multiple limitations and quirks on both Alexa and Pandora. I must say that Pandora is doing a fairly good job of playing similar artists to the large list of ones I added. I would like better controls on excluding certain ones though.

Once you choose Pandora as your default station, you no longer have to say "Pandora". Just say "Alexa, play Jack Radio".

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Once you choose Pandora as your default station, you no longer have to say "Pandora". Just say "Alexa, play Jack Radio".

No that doesn't work. Saying, "Alexa, play Jack Radio" causes her to ask, "What do you want to hear." Which in turns causes me to reply, "I just told you what I want to hear you stupid $%^&%$#!" I think Alexa needs to be better programmed. Before I set Pandora to the default music source, Alexa could not find the Pandora stations I had created. After I set Pandora to the default music source, Alexa can find them but I definitely have to add "on Pandora" or she gets confused.

BTW, I still have not been able to get my Echo or Dot to play my Unlimited Amazon music plan. Seriously Bezos, just bite me!

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Finally up and running with a custom Pandora radio station called Jack Radio. I spent quite a few hours creating Jack Radio and adding 68 artists/bands so far. Then I opened the Alexa app on my iPad and went to Settings --> Music & Media --> Choose Default Music Service and set that to Pandora. Now I can listen to my super station by saying, "Alexa play Jack Radio on Pandora". Pretty cool after you get past the learning curve, terrible UI's, and multiple limitations and quirks on both Alexa and Pandora. I must say that Pandora is doing a fairly good job of playing similar artists to the large list of ones I added. I would like better controls on excluding certain ones though.

Use thumbs down on the bad songs. It will eventually learn.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by jswinden

No that doesn't work. Saying, "Alexa, play Jack Radio" causes her to ask, "What do you want to hear." Which in turns causes me to reply, "I just told you what I want to hear you stupid $%^&%$#!" I think Alexa needs to be better programmed. Before I set Pandora to the default music source, Alexa could not find the Pandora stations I had created. After I set Pandora to the default music source, Alexa can find them but I definitely have to add "on Pandora" or she gets confused.

BTW, I still have not been able to get my Echo or Dot to play my Unlimited Amazon music plan. Seriously Bezos, just bite me!

Interesting. She plays my Pandora stations without me having to say "Pandora".

So much for consistency.

...you should delete that last comment before The Jeff sees it

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Interesting. She plays my Pandora stations without me having to say "Pandora".

So much for consistency.

...you should delete that last comment before The Jeff sees it

I think Pandora has been making changes to their apps and website, and possibly their under the hood stuff. So perhaps they have not coordinated that with Amazon's Alexa developers. Oh, and I'm quite sure that as often as I take Lord Bezos name in vain with Alexa his computer servers immediately flag my account and inform him! Yep, it is so strange that my Echo will not operate the same as other people's Echos. Not sure what is going there.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I think Pandora has been making changes to their apps and website, and possibly their under the hood stuff. So perhaps they have not coordinated that with Amazon's Alexa developers. Oh, and I'm quite sure that as often as I take Lord Bezos name in vain with Alexa his computer servers immediately flag my account and inform him! Yep, it is so strange that my Echo will not operate the same as other people's Echos. Not sure what is going there.

I just play stations that already exist. Maybe that has something to do with what you're experiencing.

BTW, Pandora is planning on releasing a full-fledged music service ($10/mo) similar to Spotify and Amazon Music sometime soon.

Pandora Premium is music’s latest on-demand streaming service

$10-per-month for ad-free launches early next year

Just slightly over a year ago, Pandora purchased music streaming service Rdio. The service was shut down a few weeks later, but now the Internet radio giant has resuscitated some of the features as part of their new on-demand music subscription service, Pandora Premium.

Set to launch early next year, the latest competitor to the likes of Spotify and Apple Music (and, um, TIDAL, sorta?) will enter the market at $10-per-month for ad-free streaming and the ability to save music for offline listening. Of course, that’s no different from other services, so what will really make Pandora Premium stand out is the personalization technology that has made its streaming radio service so popular for so long.

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I just play stations that already exist. Maybe that has something to do with what you're experiencing.

BTW, Pandora is planning on releasing a full-fledged music service ($10/mo) similar to Spotify and Amazon Music sometime soon.

Pandora Premium is music’s latest on-demand streaming service

Ummmmm, I hope that doesn't mean I will have to upgrade to that at twice what I'm now paying. I don't see anything in that announcement that really differentiates my Pandora Plus account from the Premium. Well maybe the downloading for offline use, I'm not sure if the Plus account does that. I'm liking my Plus and it is only $4.99.