Apps That Don't Suck: Pandora

     Hey kids, now that iMeem.com has been swallowed whole by the unwashed ass of social networking (MySpace), I have been in search of a streaming music service that doesn't suck and that has an Android app.  I finally checked out Pandora.com and the associated Pandora app from the Android Market.  I should get the bad out of the way first.  Pandora has a license structure that does not allow their users to immediately play a song that they have searched for.  Basically you cannot search for "Detroit Rock City" by Kiss and immediately listen to it.  After listening to a song you cannot replay that song and there is an hourly limit to the number times an hour that any single artist can be played.  All those limitation are based on the licensing that Pandora obtained in order to legally play all this music.  In my opinion another way that the RIAA's draconian business model detracts from people who want to consume their product.

     Last.fm has some similar issues with their ability to play music and the frequency at which some of us wish to listen to it.  The difference between Last.fm and Pandora is that when the former plays music that they think I will like based on previous choices, they are pretty much always wrong.  When Pandora plays music based on songs and artists that I have previously chosen, it picks a winner every time (so to speak).  If you want a service that varies wildly from your chosen music in order to fuel your lust for musical discovery, maybe Last.fm is for you.  If you want a service that will weave more closely in and out of the genres of music that you are looking for, Pandora is the better choice, IMHO.

     The best part of Pandora for me is the Android app that is available.  Free in the Android Market of course and it actually works without getting in the way of itself.  The app works simply, launch it and run whichever station you want to listen to music from.  It will run in the background  and doesn't render the phone unusable while running.  It will also quite easily stream music on Edge/2G, at least it does for me in Pittsburgh.   Last.fm died pretty regularly if not on 3G.  Most of the web controls are also in the App.  You can skip, like and dislike songs.  After a week of using the app I have not had a single Force Close.  Note that my experience may differ slightly from others since I am using a customized ROM on my phone instead of the stock T-Mobile ROM.

     All in all some good stuff from the folks at Pandora.  There website does not have a nauseating layout, the registration process is quick and the music quality is decent.  My only complaint is that I can't listen to a song 50 times in a row if I want to but I guess that may not be an issue for most folks.