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Comment by vinceguidry | Hacker News Reader

Just now I thought I'd try Pandora out. Went over to their website expecting to have to sign up or download something. Nope, they let me pick an artist and just started pumping the tunes out. Awesome! After a few songs I start getting interested in one of them, so I click a link to show more info about the artist. Music cuts out abruptly and I'm put in front of a sign-up page. I spent ten seconds trying to figure out how to get the music back on before signing up. Discovered I can't do this, so I closed the browser tab and fired up iTunes.

The experience was so annoying I actually had to write a comment about it.

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Yeah, this new Pandora thing better figure out how to get some users or they are doomed!

I'd actually be really curious to see what their metrics are on that particular policy. Sometimes the most annoying things turn out to be the most effective.

I had the exact opposite reaction - allowing me to play songs for free let me experience the service, so by the time they asked me to sign up I was happy to.

If I'd been able to listen for longer than 10 minutes so I could get a feel for how well the selected songs match with what I want to hear, I would be too. But they're not the only service out there offering free music, and besides, "free" isn't enough to entice me to do anything anymore. I get into my local movie theater for free because I'm friends with their their HR manager. I never use it.

I didn't know creating a basic account was that big of turn off for people. Just keep a throwaway email for services like this. It's not that big of a deal.

It's not, I actually had come prepared to make one. It's the heavy-handedness that put me off. I was grooving pretty good to a song, wanted to interact more with the product, then all of a sudden the party stopped and I'm asked for my papers and justification for being there. Uhh, no thanks, man, I'll just try somewhere else.

And you went to... iTunes. The same software that wouldn't let me download podcasts (which are essentially RSS feeds) because I was in a certain region.

ITunes is by far the most inclusive music service.

Apple offers iTunes Music in 118 countries. Microsoft offers Xbox Music in 22 countries. Amazon offers Amazon MP3 in 7 countries. Google offers Google Music in 1 country.[1] Then there are the streaming services: Pandora serves 3 countries, while you can become a Spotify member in 31 countries.

[1] http://www.macstories.net/news/mapping-the-entertainment-eco...

Grooveshark doesn't have those limitations, and you can stream songs individually (or use artist radio, genre radio, or user radio)

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