Pandora Radio on Linux

I’ve been a paid Pandora Radio subscriber for years and love the service. Their website has always been a sour point because it sucks up CPU resources. Things have improved and their recent redesign completely ditched any need for Adobe Flash (it’s about time).

Running Pandora Radio in the background while at the computer is now a habit, Last year I logged thousands of hours at work, home and in the car.

My solution for keeping CPU resources down has always been  Pianobar an extemely lightweight terminal client thats easy to set up and use.

Download it from your repository. In Ubuntu its easy.

sudo apt-get install pianobar

Then create a .config folder in your user folder if it doesen’t already exist. In there create a pianobar folder.

Within that folder create a file named config and provide your account info using a text editor such as nano. This will allow you to bypass logging in and selecting a station each time pianobar runs.

user = your user email address goes here
password = password goes here
audio_quality = mp3-hifi
autostart_station = station number from url goes here

Then open your terminal and type pianobar at the prompt.

Once running you can view the help menu by typing a ?

+    love song
-    ban song
a    add music to station
c    create new station
d    delete station
e    explain why this song is played
g    add genre station
h    song history
i    print information about song/station
j    add shared station
n    next song
p    pause/resume playback
q    quit
r    rename station
s    change station
t    tired (ban song for 1 month)
u    upcoming songs
x    select quickmix stations
b    bookmark song/artist
(    decrease volume
)    increase volume
=    delete seeds/feedback
v    create new station from song or artist
P    resume playback
S    pause playback
^    reset volume
!    change settings

Terminals not your thing? Pithos is just as awesome.

Oh, if you’re wondering about the wallpaper.