With over 35 million listeners, Pandora is easily one of the most popular Internet radio sites. Despite Pandora being awesome at linking similar songs together, there's always room for improvement. For instance, controlling it requires you to manually go to the website. Or what if you want to listen to a specific song you're in the mood for? The best you can do is listen to a preview.
It'd also be nice to scrobble Pandora to Last.fm. Thankfully, we can always rely on third-party developers to fill the gaps. In this article, we'll explore some browser extensions that help improve Pandora, whether you're using Chrome or Firefox.
Pandora To Spotify Playlist Converter [No Longer Available]
Probably the biggest thing I dislike about Pandora the most is that I can't listen to any song that I want at any time. This is where other Internet radio services, like Spotify or Grooveshark, come in handy. However, I still feel that Pandora trumps them in discovering new music and playing something similar.
So what do you do? You like the song. But then, yet again, you can't listen to that song whenever you want. You could look it up on YouTube or type it in on Spotify, but chances are you have a lot of likes, not just one or two. The solution is exporting those and this Pandora Chrome extension can do just that.
Once you install the extension, sign into your Pandora account, go to My Profile and click Likes.
Now you'll see a few tracks, but if you scroll down you'll see a Show more, button. For you to get all of your Pandora Likes, you'll have to keep revealing more of them, but clicking that button several times until all of them show up.
For me I had 600+ songs I had liked, so it might take a bit of patience. However, once you have displayed all of the tracks, click the Pandora To Spotify Playlist Converter button and copy the text.
Now go over to Spotify and create a new playlist.
There are two methods of inserting the tracks into the playlist:
- Drag and drop (best if both windows are side by side).
- CTRL+V (right clicking doesn't result in a context menu).
Now you've got your very own Pandora playlist right in Spotify.
SoundControl Beta [Chrome]
Another big problem with Pandora (as is with most Internet radio sites) is ease of control outside of the website. Some websites work with media keys, but then again you might not have media keys. SoundControl Beta For Pandora, previously covered on MakeUseOf by Craig, solves the problem, as well as provides several other nice features. This is perhaps one of the best Pandora Chrome extensions available.
Upon downloading SoundControl Beta, right click the button and click Options. Here you'll see that you can customize the various commands based on how many times you click the button.
You might also notice on the menu that there's a Playlist button – this gives you access to all your playlists in Pandora.
If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you'll see the rest of SoundControl Beta's options, including settings such as song notification (popup) duration and automatically adjusting ad volume, among others. Note that in my use, muting the ad volume only worked for audio ads and not video ones.
Pandora Remote + de Mobo [Chrome & Android/iOS]
Have you ever needed to control Pandora while away from your computer? This app and extension combination allows you to do that. There are instructions on the Pandora Remote extention page that provide all the help need for setting it up, but to paraphrase: Install the extension, download the app, connect the two together, control Pandora from your phone.
NOTE: Both devices must be connected to the same WiFi network.
I unfortunately can't provide actual screenshots from my phone, but the same screen is displayed in the dropdown, upon clicking the extension's button.
Get de Mobo for Android [No Longer Available]
Get de Mobo for iOS [No Longer Available]
Pandora Listener [Chrome]
Are you fed up with Pandora always pestering you, wondering if your're "still listening"? It's annoying. Pandora Listener simply prevents Pandora from doing that. There isn't an interface or options page of any kind. Just install it and listen in peace. Of course, there will still be ads – it doesn't prevent them from playing.
NOTE: This feature is also included in SoundControl Beta, so if you decide to use that one, you won't need both of these.
Sway.fm Unified Music Media Keys [Chrome]
Sway.fm Unified Music Media Keys is another extension that allows you to control Pandora (as well as other websites) within your browser, no matter what webpage you're on. However, it's not just via the button, but it also allows you to use your keyboard's media keys – a huge bonus.
We've previously dedicated an entire article to Sway.fm Unified Music Media Keys, so check out Justin's article for more information.
Flutter [Chrome, Windows, Mac]
Flutter is another awesome extension that we've already covered here on MakeUseOf. It's a simple application that allows you to control your music with your hand using your webcam. You do have to install a desktop application as well for the Pandora Chrome extension to work. Refer to Simon's article or the Flutter website for more information.
Media Hint [Firefox]
Media Hint is a simple Firefox add-on, that allows you to listen to Pandora (as well visit others like Hulu and Netflix), no matter where you are in the world. The great part though is that there's nothing to set up – it's all built right into the extension.
FoxyScrobbler [No Longer Available]
FoxyScrobbler submits the songs you listen to in Pandora, YouTube and SoundCloud to Last.fm. Support for more websites is in the plans. But it doesn't just scrobble your music – you can also "love" and tag songs, as well as have some control as to when it scrobbles and whether you want to display song notifications.
Conclusion
Yet again, it seems that there just aren't a lot of Firefox add-ons in this category. FoxyTunes, the popular Firefox media controller, doesn't seem to be supported anymore and another add-on, Harmony [No Longer Available], which displays information about artists and scrobbles to Last.fm isn't currently supported by the latest version of Firefox.
Joel has previously covered other tools to enhance Pandora, such as Anesidora for Chrome and FindThatBand for Chrome and Firefox, as well as others.
Do you have a favorite tool to help you get the most out of Pandora? What about any feedback about the ones mentioned here in this article? We'd love to hear your thoughts.