• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Will Pandora Wipe Out iHeartRadio?

W

Willits

I was talking with a NYC radio person about this topic, on certain points we agree. iHeartRadio has more diverse programming, but Pandora is much more user-friendly.
 
Pandora is a one trick pony. They basically have one business model. Iheartradio spreads the cost of music streaming over a bigger platform, so it's cheaper to run. They're able to use their muscle to make better deals with record labels than Pandora. So if we're talking about staying in business, I wouldn't bet on Pandora...unless they consolidate with someone else.
 
We didn't discuss this, but Apple iRadio is a player in all of this, too. They've got lots of muscle and resources. Pandora can personally tailor the music selections far more than iHeartRadio. That aspect of it appears to be a big hit. iHeartRadio has a number of content resources that the others don't have.
 
Spotify is another player in the music streaming business but iHeart is different because it streams radio stations and shows, not just songs. It also offers Talk Radio.
 
But what about Rdio? Never heard of Rdio before, it's an internet streaming radio than iHeartRadio and TuneIn. I've read last month that Cumulus is getting into Rdio and I hope Rdio will be getting WABC, WPLJ and WNSH along with the "Nash" programming, since Cumulus purchased Rdio last month. And I hope maybe Cumulus will be ending its partnership with iHeartRadio beginning in early 2014. That means iHeartRadio will no longer carries WABC, WPLJ and WNSH's "Nash" from Cumulus. It will go straight to Rdio. Any thoughts on this change? There are many internet streams out there to find.
 
IHeart is an excellent and very user-friendly app, for what it is. And unlike Pandora, they have other features as well, such as access to live radio streams from select station groups. I typically recommend it over TuneIn for novice smartphone users who aren't outrageously picky about their selections, as TuneIn can be a bit intimidating, though a must-have for radio geeks.

There are many other players in streaming music nowadays. Slacker is the most like Pandora, and like Pandora is easy to use and set up. I've been getting into Songza lately, as their curated playlists cover pretty much any musical genre available. Plus, it features custom channel creation like the others.

I've tried quite a few others, such as Last.fm, which was too confusing. I uninstalled the mediocre Radio.com app from CBS once they re-added their streams to TuneIn. Not much into Spotify, as it's hard to control while driving. Google Play Music is crap.

But to answer the original question, no, Pandora won't wipe out IHeart or any other service. Everybody knows what Pandora is, as they've been around longer than any of the other custom-radio services. If anything, competition has grown, particularly in the smartphone era.
 
I don't understand why people like Pandora so much. You're letting a computer pick what they *think* you might want to hear. With a service like Spotify you can listen to the exact song you like, exactly when you want it, and create custom playlists of exactly what you want to hear.
 
Simple. If I like artist "X" then Pandora might play artist "Y" which I will discover I like. If I don't know I like Artist Y, I can't just look them up on Spotify. Pandora allows a degree of discovery.
 
stevensonair said:
Simple. If I like artist "X" then Pandora might play artist "Y" which I will discover I like. If I don't know I like Artist Y, I can't just look them up on Spotify. Pandora allows a degree of discovery.
Click to expand...

This is kind of the way two other players work as well, TuneIn and SiriusXM. For example, when I leave work and am tired, all I have to do is press one button that takes me to a channel is pretty much like all of what they play on Sirius. It's a degree of discovery and very easy and convenient to use. I don't know that much about TuneIn, but I read a lot of good things about it.

Setting up an exact playlist is a hassle to me, especially when I've worked hard all day long. I'm anxious to check out Apple's iRadio, also.
 
ansky212 said:
I don't understand why people like Pandora so much. You're letting a computer pick what they *think* you might want to hear. With a service like Spotify you can listen to the exact song you like, exactly when you want it, and create custom playlists of exactly what you want to hear.
Click to expand...

Same reason we listen to the radio. We like the spontaneity of it. I like to be surprised when I listen, so when I'm not listening to my own music files, I pick artists, genre or whatever and see what happens. That's why I drift toward services like Pandora, IHeart, Songza and 8Tracks.
 
I like both Pandora and iheart. Sure I still sometimes listen to the terrestrial dial, but with services like those as well as Spotify, and so much more, you can discover tons and tons of music options to choose from.
 
iheart is going to lose people due to the constant iheart app updates that also cause you to lose your remembered login and password. I was happy enough when it first came out where I did not need to login and I just kept it on my favorite station. Then they started updating the app all the time so you needed to login with a password in order to keep your settings. Every time the app would get updated you would have to relogin again since your settings were no longer remembered. It is time consuming.

I also can never remember my password after it updates. So I have to go through that process again. They really need to stop updating the app so often. Why even require a login step. It is also no ones business what I listen to so screw them and their login.

I was a regular iheart user and this got to be such a pain in the ass I want back to suffering through NY FM radio.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom