Pandora alternatives. Your favorite streaming music.

[cardinal]

I was listening to my local streaming music station (Oregon Public Broadcasting's music station) and had two thoughts:

1. I want to share it's awesomeness with you.
2. I want to hear what you are listening to while patching tubes or building wheels or making file dust.

I like OPBMusic because it is commercial free, has very little DJ dialogue and plays a nice mix of new local acts and older music that I like.

What are you listening to specifically, and why do you like it?

OPBmusic.jpg

[edoz]

I really like Grooveshark, because you can pick what you listen to. It's great for checking out an artist that you don't know, because you can load up a whole album (or more).

[Chad]

Pandora, basic version. Was listening when I read your post.

Black Crowes is the current station.

I could do without the commercials, but they're short. Love the simplicity, I'm used to the format so I probably won't look at others due to being to lazy to set up another account.

[chasea]

Spotify kinda rules my face.

[dashDustin]

Grooveshark or We Are Hunted - The Online Music Chart

[christian]

I never liked Pandora. Always seemed too clever by half and never actually played stuff I liked. Slacker Radio has always worked for me when commuting or running on the hamsterbelt at the gym. That said, have been on Spotify for about 30 days and it's pretty great. I am thinking I will have to up and pay for it.

[Badonkadonk]

spotify. some mega pop hits missing, but a ton of stuff. premium at 10/month plus a core music library of your own is a killer combo.

[Shoogs]

Soma.fm or pandora stations pend mood. at work typically Bonobo on Pandora or Groove Salad, I like chill music with some beats.

I haven't ponied up for the mobile spotify, though tempted.

[Gummee]

I've been listening to Jango. No commercials unless you switch songs or channels.

:thumb

M

[xjoex]

Spotify is neat, but keep in mind spotify works by sharing out your library.

#Begin nerd
Looking at their FAQ Frequently asked questions - Spotify they pay per play to the music labels. And they keep their costs down since it is a big P2P network.

I wondered why the app imported my iTunes library. Anyhow lets see the kind of impact it has on the network.

Spotify uses P2P and I believe they use centralized directory servers to store your files and manage each p2p share. The directory servers run on port 4070. You can see that in this flow example.

joe@smallpc ~]$ rwfilter --proto=0- --type=out --pass=stdout --start-date=2011/08/15:00 --end-date=2011/08/16:00 --bytes=10000- --dport=4070 --saddr=192.168.1.120 | rwcut --fields=sip,dip,sport,sport,bytes,stime | rwresolve --ip-fields=2
sIP| dIP|sPort|sPort| bytes| sTime|
192.168.1.120|afton.ash.spotify.com|60831|60831| 897922|2011/08/15T15:22:18.154|
192.168.1.120|agnes.ash.spotify.com|61133|61133| 12091|2011/08/15T16:19:14.761|
192.168.1.120|agnes.ash.spotify.com|61133|61133| 48601|2011/08/15T17:19:14.707|
192.168.1.120|agnes.ash.spotify.com|61133|61133| 14244|2011/08/15T17:49:14.200|
192.168.1.120|daryl.ash.spotify.com|62410|62410| 10888|2011/08/15T22:37:50.263|

So lets take a look at what we shared out to the world. My guess is anything that is tcp, outbound, large and has a destination port in the ephemeral range is p2p traffic.
[joe@smallpc ~]$ rwfilter --proto=6 --type=out --pass=stdout --start-date=2011/08/15:00 --end-date=2011/08/16:00 --bytes=20000- --dport=1024- --saddr=192.168.1.120 | rwcut --fields=sip,dip,sport,sport,bytes,stime
sIP| dIP|sPort|sPort| bytes| sTime|
192.168.1.120| 173.79.172.74|60874|60874| 90640|2011/08/15T15:25:55.382|
192.168.1.120| 24.181.200.163|60855|60855| 107000|2011/08/15T15:25:00.603|
192.168.1.120| 174.97.137.211|60907|60907| 114460|2011/08/15T15:27:09.252|
192.168.1.120| 24.176.50.122|60905|60905| 29508|2011/08/15T15:27:08.262|
192.168.1.120| 24.106.66.121|60967|60967| 94168|2011/08/15T15:32:50.539|
192.168.1.120| 71.239.155.188|60954|60954| 81867|2011/08/15T15:31:17.395|
192.168.1.120| 69.230.65.135|60881|60881| 29751|2011/08/15T15:26:07.259|
192.168.1.120| 71.220.195.53|60963|60963| 83885|2011/08/15T15:31:41.566|
192.168.1.120| 99.152.42.28|60934|60934| 65755|2011/08/15T15:30:24.836|
192.168.1.120| 193.182.8.9|60831|60831| 897922|2011/08/15T15:22:18.154|
192.168.1.120| 193.182.8.10|61133|61133| 48601|2011/08/15T17:19:14.707|
192.168.1.120| 75.179.42.29|61493|61493| 1093022|2011/08/15T18:39:57.437|
192.168.1.120| 74.140.96.216|61810|61810| 1426769|2011/08/15T21:16:32.268|

Ok so this accounted for how much traffic? About 3.9 Mbs.
[joe@smallpc ~]$ rwfilter --proto=6 --type=out --pass=stdout --start-date=2011/08/15:00 --end-date=2011/08/16:00 --bytes=20000- --dport=1024- --saddr=192.168.1.120 | rwcount --bin-size=864000
Date| Records| Bytes| Packets|
2011/08/07T20:00:00| 13.00| 4163348.00| 20772.00|

But what was my total outbound traffic for the day? About 4.2 Mb.
[joe@smallpc ~]$ rwfilter --proto=0- --type=out --pass=stdout --start-date=2011/08/15:00 --end-date=2011/08/16:00 --saddr=192.168.1.120 | rwcount --bin-size=864000
Date| Records| Bytes| Packets|
2011/08/07T20:00:00| 284.00| 4508497.00| 23612.00|


And what was my total traffic for the day? That was 200Mb.
[joe@smallpc ~]$ rwfilter --proto=0- --type=all --pass=stdout --start-date=2011/08/15:00 --end-date=2011/08/16:00 --any-addr=192.168.1.120 | rwcount --bin-size=864000
Date| Records| Bytes| Packets|
2011/08/07T20:00:00| 8148.00| 210600690.00| 252851.00|


Lets look at the total inbound Spotify traffic. About 31Mb inbound.

[joe@smallpc ~]$ rwfilter --proto=0- --type=in --pass=stdout --start-date=2011/08/15:00 --end-date=2011/08/16:00 --daddr=192.168.1.120 --sport=10000- --dport=10000- --bytes=10000- | rwcut --fields=sip,dip,bytes,stime
sIP| dIP| bytes| sTime|
173.79.172.74| 192.168.1.120| 2866430|2011/08/15T15:25:55.504|
24.181.200.163| 192.168.1.120| 7978617|2011/08/15T15:25:00.652|
174.97.137.211| 192.168.1.120| 5465386|2011/08/15T15:27:09.291|
24.176.50.122| 192.168.1.120| 666742|2011/08/15T15:27:12.319|
24.106.66.121| 192.168.1.120| 3918214|2011/08/15T15:32:50.586|
71.239.155.188| 192.168.1.120| 5034746|2011/08/15T15:31:17.456|
66.31.227.37| 192.168.1.120| 13486|2011/08/15T15:31:06.519|
69.230.65.135| 192.168.1.120| 957622|2011/08/15T15:26:07.355|
71.220.195.53| 192.168.1.120| 3635008|2011/08/15T15:31:41.825|
99.152.42.28| 192.168.1.120| 2569946|2011/08/15T15:30:24.883|
75.179.42.29| 192.168.1.120| 27601|2011/08/15T18:39:57.481|
74.140.96.216| 192.168.1.120| 31602|2011/08/15T21:16:32.357|
[joe@smallpc ~]$ rwfilter --proto=0- --type=in --pass=stdout --start-date=2011/08/15:00 --end-date=2011/08/16:00 --daddr=192.168.1.120 --sport=10000- --dport=10000- --bytes=10000- | rwcount --bin-size=860000
Date| Records| Bytes| Packets|
2011/08/07T20:00:00| 12.00| 33165400.00| 25461.00|

Lets look at these numbers:
Total P2P Outbound for spotify: 3.9mb
Total Outbound: 4.2mb
So spotify accounted for 92% of all outbound traffic from my network.
Total traffic for the day was 200mb, , and spotify p2p outbound traffic took up 1% of total traffic.
Total inbound spotify counted for 15% of total traffic.

Combined Spotify traffic accounted for 17% of total bandwidth.

I think I got off better in this deal. But I want to keep an eye on this...

Anyhow spotify is cheap because you are paying for all of the bandwidth. If you have a plan with a cap, keep an eye on ephemeral port to ephemeral port traffic.


#End Nerd

-Joe

[54ny77]

bigrradio.com

Decent varuety of stations, and free, with very few commercials.

[RIHans]

Radio.com is cool. Find a station you like.

Anyone but me tune into Wolfgang's Vault...
Free with an e-mail address.

[R.Liverman]

Lately I've been listening to everything in my iTunes in alphabetical order. I've got a ridiculous amount of music that I haven't listened to or that I forgot I used to like. So far it's been a real pleasure. As for online stuff check out 8tracks.com and prepare yourself to be pleasantly surprised.

[WadePatton]

I really like Grooveshark, because you can pick what you listen to. It's great for checking out an artist that you don't know, because you can load up a whole album (or more).

i jest discovered Grooveshark and it is GREAT for checking out all the good "B" side stuff--the REST OF THE ALBUM, where the good stuff is. it ain't perfect, but it's...

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAy better than pandora!

[rec head]

We're Alive is a radio drama about zombie apocalypse. I'm not super into zombies but this show is great. They are on chapter 26 Which is over 24 hours of listening. The only annoying part is that since it is broken into chapters is that have intros and outros after each.
This isn't streaming but it is free (you can donate.)

Available on itunes or at their site
WereAliveMain

[Chance Legstrong]

i still use Pandora(free) i stream it through my phone when not streaming races at work.
they have been sending out a lot of free 30 day trial(premiums) lately

but Spotify is where it's at

[cody.wms]

but Spotify is where it's at

Yes.

Spotify has saved me an untold amount of money. Lots of great stuff on there, but there are some holdouts still (looking at you King Crimson and Zappa Family Trust).