I listen to a lot of old music - 1950s, 1960s. I don't really have peers who listen to it so discoverability is a real issue. Pandora was amazing for me ~20 years ago, it introduced me to songs I never would have heard. Especially in the 50s you had a lot of "one hit wonders" so just listening to a band wasn't a great way to find other songs that I would like.
I don't really use Spotify so I can't compare but Pandora was awesome. I've found Youtube playlists to be the best replacement so far.
The old stuff is the good stuff alright,
(1930s) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHLbaOLWjpc
(1950s) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6isIPytpk40
(1960s) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qssa6ec7faQ
Good stuff in any time, just harder to find:
(2025) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8hPNPInXh0
(2024) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef-c-9G52jU
(2015) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C1EDbkl2CU
(2025) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvcNvVZl9AA
(2022) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr2sx-HHTBw
>just harder to find
But this is the problem. Before, people where naturally exposed to classical and jazz and OSTs etc.
This is the problem with current society.
How do you find it in the modern era that’s really the problem we’re asking to solve
That New Order cover is tight, thank you for this.
> I don't really use Spotify so I can't compare but Pandora was awesome. I've found Youtube playlists to be the best replacement so far.
You do realize Pandora is still there, right?
For me, it's been 'gone' since 2017, when they shut down in Australia. They used to be available everywhere, but locked off international audiences when laws became inconvenient.
(Obviously you could VPN in, but it's a meaningful hassle.)
> They used to be available everywhere, but locked off international audiences when laws became inconvenient.
The coverage I could find suggested that they were available in three total countries: the USA, Australia, and New Zealand.
So there was no point at which they locked out "international audiences". They had a branch in Australia, and they closed it.
From 2005-2007 it was available everywhere. It was a purely US operation, but the internet is international unless you take active steps to stop it.
In 2007 the copyright lawyers caught up with them and they locked it to US IP addresses: https://mashable.com/archive/pandora-international
Australia-specific operations were 2012-2017.
It got shut down in my country about 10 years ago.
It’s never been good though
Not really. I stopped using it at some point a very, very long time ago, and I don't recall why. I've moved to Youtube so it hasn't occurred to me to revisit.