It was an ancient Inside The Net podcast (now known as Net @ Nite) with an an interview with the creator of Pandora, that first turned me on to the concept of personalized streaming Internet radio. The concept was novel: You type in an artist or song title, and the engine plays that song, or one similar, and then sets the bar for all upcoming tracks based on an analysis of your original pick’s “music genome.” As the songs play you have the option to give a yea or nay in order to perfect your personalized radio station.

Before discovering Pandora, I had been streaming Sunshine FM, Hungary’s finest radio station, 24/7. I was recording as much of it as I possible so I could listen to it in the car and on my mp3 player. Needless to say, recording my own personalized stations from Pandora was a lot more enjoyable.

After a few months with Pandora on heavy rotation, a new player came into the personalizable Internet radio station game. Its name was Deezer. At the time it was a clunky, buggy mess. Although Deezer’s song library was quite large, and the service gave you the ability to play any song you wanted whenever you wanted, I disregarded it as a cheap knockoff of Pandora.

I gave Deezer little thought in the following months, but still checked up on it from time to time for improvements. Visiting Deezer one day, I was greeted with nothing. The site was gone, presumably shut down or given up. I simply shrugged my shoulders and continued enjoying Pandora.

As expected, legal troubles soon arose for Internet radio services like Pandora, and stricter regulations were put into place. As a result Pandora only functions in certain countries. That’s about when I moved to Canada, a country not supported by Pandora. For several weeks I mourned the loss, consoling myself with the recorded CDs that I had made of my Pandora stations.

Then one day I must have forgotten that Deezer was no more. I tried visiting the site, and to my amazement it was up and running with a brand new look and feel. It hadn’t shut its doors due to failure; it was just renovating! I welcomed Deezer into my dorm with open arms and listened.

The main difference between Deezer and Pandora is that the former boasts music “on demand,” which means that you can search for an artist and (assuming that the artist is available) listen to an entire album; you can also assemble saved playlists for later listening. With Pandora you can only listen to “similar artists” to the one you used to create your station; it is randomized from then on out. Deezer’s Smart Radio player functions in much the same way as Pandora’s engine does, though (I assume) with a lot less analysis.

I’ve assembled a chart of some features. I’ll describe them in more detail below.

• Unlimited Skip Forward: Pandora limits the forward skip to a few per hour; Deezer has no limitations.
• Specific Song Selection: The first track in the Smart Radio on Deezer can be whatever you want it to be; not so for Pandora.
• Background info: One of the most enjoyable things about Pandora is the information provided about the artist and song currently playing; Deezer lacks background info, but if you’re surfing the Web while listening then it’s not really a problem.
• Advertisements Both have ads, although you can pay to have them removed in Pandora. Deezer does have more ads per page than Pandora does, but the ads don’t pose much of an inconvenience on either site.
• Friends Both sites have the ability to add friends, I don’t use this feature, and I doubt many people do.
• Playlists: Deezer allows you to save playlists of any songs on the site; Pandora does not.
• Embeddable Player: Deezer allows you to embed a player of a single song, playlist, or even the Smart Radio.
• Sweet Indie Cred: That all goes to Pandora.
• Savable Stations: Deezer does not allow you to save Smart Radios for later listening; Pandora does. This isn’t too much of a hassle, as all you have to do in Deezer is search for an artist, play a song by them and click “Start a Smart Radio”.

While listening to these respective Internet radio services you may notice that they each have their own flaws. Pandora tends to play the same songs in roughly the same order every time you listen (which can be modified), and Deezer’s Smart Radio sometimes plays the same song two or 3 times in a row, or within a very short time interval (since you can skip an unlimited number of times this isn’t too annoying, and a refresh of the player every once in a while eliminates the problem).

Which player you choose to use is a matter of preference; I’m guessing more people will be attracted to Pandora’s slick and clean look.

Now that I’m back in the states you may think I’m all over Pandora, but that is not the case. I’ve grown to love Deezer and simply can’t leave it. Whether my particular musical taste (*cough country cough*) may mean a better selection on Deezer than on Pandora, I have yet to determine.

So go out and listen to the wonderful world of personalized Internet radio, and remember: this isn’t Highlander - there CAN be more than one.

© Jacob Nicolas Martinez 2008 for Listen In. Some rights reserved.

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