Cell phone provider change

[HAULN-SS]

Pandora just went down a notch in my book. I listen to it a lot at work, and they are ending unlimited free radio. Now, in addition to the song skipping bullshit, the max you can listen without paying is 40 hours/month

[REED]

ugh, where did you hear that?

that really blows - i was cool with the commercials and i could live with the skipping rules, but that is really a pain in the ass

[Evan]

its due to the new (lowered but still much higher than regular/sat radio) royalty fees for web based music broadcast. the alternative was no more pandora (or any other web radio for that matter) due to the crazy high royalties that were originally demanded.
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oh, and to go over 40 hours a month, you pay the high price of $0.99

I dont see the big deal. (but, for the record I think its a scam that the labels...errr I mean artists be paid for webcasters to promote them)

[HAULN-SS]

I know the price is nominal, it's just the point it's one more thing i'll have to put my CC# out there for one more effin' thing. On top of that, pandora was already making money from amazon referrals every time someone bought an album by browsing through pandora, which i've done at least 5 times. When I hit my 40 hour limit, i'll just log into my XM accoutn and listen to that.

I also second that it's a scam, though real radio stations do pay those same royalties, but I would think off the advertising, pandora would be good to go, seeing as how it's one "radio station" that has millions of subscribers, yet a smalltown radio station with maybe 25,000 listeners daily can still afford it?

[Apoc]

I know the price is nominal, it's just the point it's one more thing i'll have to put my CC# out there for one more effin' thing.

God forbid you have to pay for the things you use. I'll gladly pay the 99 cents if I hit the limit.

Internet advertising doesn't pay NEARLY as well as actual radio advertising and as Evan said, internet radio has to pay higher rates than broadcast. How many Pandora ads have you clicked (on purpose) and how many still have led to you purchasing something? You're basically getting hours and hours of music YOU want to hear for free and you're complaining about it. Seems kinda silly.

[REED]

yeah i didn't realize the cost - @ $1 a month its hardly a problem, my question is in regards to Pandora One - why would you pay $36/Year for that instead of just $12/Year for the regular subscription? The adds aren't realllllly that big of an issue, i'm assuming the other benefit of "One" is you can skip more maybe?

[Apoc]

why would you pay $36/Year for that instead of just $12/Year for the regular subscription?

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To me, it's not worth it, but I can see how some would think so.

[Mike]

i could justify the upgrade since i'm an audio quality whore. i'd care more if their "low quality" stuff didn't sound good, but it does.

[HAULN-SS]

The point being that XM has an app for a phone if that's what you were wanting to do. AOL has free streaming radio that includes some XM stations, and there are many other places to continue to get free radio (or radio i'm already paying for in the case of XM), and I won't have to have yet another account with a credit card number associated with it.

[Evan]

is 'regular' pandora 128 kb/s ?

[Mike]

is 'regular' pandora 128 kb/s ?

that's what i'd infer from the upgrade being 192. it sure doesn't sound like 128 to me, though. maybe they're running a 48 sample rate? i dunno... just sounds better than most 128/44 to me.

<--- huge nerd.

[JustinG]

Fail copter

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I dont have a pre or anything but i feel like if i buy my music i should be able to use it on whatever device i want, but thatll never happen. Im surprised as hell i can use itunes on my blackberry.

[Evan]

your link is busted. I assume you mean <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/smartphones/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218500862">http://www.informationweek.com/news/per ... =218500862</a><!-- m -->

horray for apple. closed standards, proprietary ecosystem, zero integration, can anybody guess why I think Apple Inc is a flaming pit of douche yet?

iTunes sucks, so the better solution is to buy your music from amazon mp3 anyway.

[HAULN-SS]

+1 I hate the iTunes interface, and have yet to figure out why anyone thinks it's hot shit. The iTunes interface was what kept me from ever buying an Mp3 player

[ViPER1313]

Same - I really wouldn't mind owning an iPod if I didn't have to use iTunes - that software is the biggest POS ever created.

OR: Is there a way to allow you to transfer music to and from the iPod like you would an external HD?

[Evan]

i think the new ipods can appear as an external drive? (i know the older ones didnt)

either way there is definately free/cheap software that interfaces it and replaces itunes

[ViPER1313]

Can anyone here answer this?? My understanding of this was you could transfer files to and from the iPod like an external HD but it wouldn't let you play them on the IPod unless they were uploaded via iTunes.

[Apoc]

Can anyone here answer this?? My understanding of this was you could transfer files to and from the iPod like an external HD but it wouldn't let you play them on the IPod unless they were uploaded via iTunes.

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[CaptainHenreh]

For the record, I use rockbox on my ZombiPod and <3 it.

[Jake]

To answer some of the iPod/iTunes stuff:

Yes, they can be used as an external HD. They have always been able to do this, since the 5GB iPod of 2001. Plug it in, go in to iTunes, and on the iPod sync screen that comes up, click the little box that says "use in disk mode" or whatever. Done.

With a stock iPod setup, you can't drag + drop files to the iPod like it's a HD, and have it recognize them as playable MP3, AAC, whatever. Rockbox and other setups may allow this.

I don't get what the big hate fest is about iTunes. Compared to other mass-market solutions (I'm looking straight at you, Windows Media Player) I think it's a good program. I agree that it's getting bloated from trying to handle too many functions, and the "tunes" part of the name doesn't apply 100% anymore since it syncs movies/TV shows/apps. It does allow you to do what Apple intends - aka download, import, organize, and sync audio/video content - very well.

Then again, I use a Mac and everything works right all the time, so for all I know, the Windows version of iTunes could be a steaming pile.