So Happy to Hear an Ad on Pandora

I had a really tough time waking up this morning. Normally I get up at 7, eat some breakfast, and then spend some time on a bicycle. This morning I ate breakfast and then fell asleep on the couch before getting out on my bike. I still have to exercise every day and so I had to find time later in the day. I finished a meeting and then jumped on my indoor bike for 30 minutes.

Riding a bike outdoors and listening to music are two activities that should never be mixed. I see a lot of people on the bike trail listening to headphones and it is dangerous. On a bike, you need all of your senses to keep from having an accident. However I enjoy listening to music while riding a stationary bike. Sometimes it is the only way to get through a 30-minute bike ride. In the United States, my streaming service of choice is Pandora. As Pandora is not available in Japan, I use Spotify there.

Lately I have grown rather disenfranchised with Pandora. I am one of those people that really likes to curate my music. If I like a song, I will give it a thumbs-up. If not, it gets a thumbs-down. There is no middle ground. The problem with Pandora is that it is always showing annoying ads. I will go into my phone to give a song a thumbs-up or down and have an ad appear right above both of the thumb icons. I try to click the appropriate thumb and get taken to an ad instead of rating my song. Most of the time it is fairly harmless. Today I went to rate a song and didn't see what ad I clicked. Nothing happened on the screen and I feared I just agreed to sign up for a free 30-day trial of premium Pandora. Then I would have to figure out how to cancel the premium service.

I worried about figuring out how to remove Pandora premium from my account for 3 songs. Then I heard an ad and was happy. I still don't know what ad I clicked on, but at least I am not signed up for something I will end up having to pay for later.

Those ads really annoy me but paying for streaming music annoys me even more. I don't mind listening to an add every once and a while during my music. After all, that is what happens on a normal radio station. However those visual ads are bothering me enough that I may give up on Pandora and start using Spotify instead.