Pandora Competitor: Music Recommendations with Jango, Meemix, and Slacker Radio
Pandora is a member of the Music Genome Project, which allows the music recommendation service the ability to analyze songs, and suggest new songs based on similar tempos and beats. This is an ability of most music recommendation services. Pandora has a standalone website. It is also available for download through the Apple Store and Android Market. The service is free, but it also offers a subscription base service, which allows you to run Pandora without the advertisements that pop-up every so often.
There is several a Pandora competitor out there in the market. If you are seeking ways to discover new artists, then these music recommendation services may be useful to you. Jango, Meemix, and Slacker radio are comparable to Pandora. Combining a Pandora competitor into your music discovering arsenal can help you discover new artists.
Pandora Competitor: Jango
Pros: Social networking features. Jango allows you to make friends that share similar musical tastes. You can also view pictures of the bands that are playing on Jango.
Cons: Annoying advertisements. Jango will periodically stop the song for an ad that you will have to endure for a few seconds. Pandora's subscription plan allows you to skip these annoying advertisements. Jango does not.
This Pandora competitor shares similar features with Pandora. You are able to create a “Station” of your favorite song or artist, allowing Jango the free reign of selecting new songs for you that share musical similarities. This Pandora competitor is a bit interface-heavy, since it’s not only a music recommendation service, but it also has social-networking features. It allows you to see what others are listening to and message them if you wish – potentially making new friends.
Sound quality on Jango is clear, with large genre selections. This Pandora competitor may fail with obtrusive bands. Pandora is known to deliver quality music, even with a station from an obscure artist. Jango tends to fail in this department.
Apple App Store: Yes, Android Market: Yes
Pandora Competitor: Meemix
Meemix is another Pandora competitor that allows you to create personalized stations. Meemix has a simple, yet comprehensive interface that, like Jango, incorporates social-networking features like Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace.
Pros: Mood control feature allows Meemix to recommend music that is aligned to your current mood. Their music data is comprehensive, allowing you to discover new songs from even obscure bands.
Cons: Poor music “videos.” Many of the videos offered by Meemix are just made up of an image with the soundtrack playing in the background.
“Audio Mode” on Meemix is the main selling point of this Pandora competitor. Here, you can make your personalized music station by typing in the name of an artist, song, or album. The algorithms will then discover new songs for you.
Apple App Store: No, Android Market: No
Pandora Competitor: Slacker Radio
Slacker radio is another Pandora competitor. The service is unique in that you can share your personalized music stations with your friends. The service has more than 2.4 million song collections, making it a comprehensive music player.
Pros: Great sound quality. A Clean, well designed interface. There is a subscription option like Pandora, allowing you to play music without pesky ads.
Cons: Those that have a free Slacker account will only be able to view part of the song’s lyrics. Some songs, no matter what account you hold, will not be able to show lyrics.
Slacker radio has been noted for its audio quality and its overall outstanding service. It does not have the social-networking features that are akin to Jango. You won’t be able to share your music discoveries with friends directly on Facebook or any other social networking site.
This Pandora competitor offers three plans for those who are interested. The free version of Slacker allows you to skip six songs per hour. This will force you to sit through songs that you may not want to listen to at that time. The $3.99 a month plan is called Slacker Plus, which allows you to remove annoying advertisements altogether, as well as stream music through the player with no limit.
Slacker Premium calls for a monthly subscription of $9.99. Slacker premium allows you to cache your favorite songs, as well as offer other on-demand features. You can also search a song, and play it over and over again with Slacker Premium, a feature not available through the free version as well as Slacker Plus. This Pandora competitor is one that other companies need to keep close tabs.
