Pandora's Jar: Save MP3s from Pandora automatically

Filed under: Audio, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Open Source

Pandora's Jar: Save MP3s from Pandora automatically

by Jordan Running Dec 5th 2006

Over at the Hak.5 forums you can download an app cheekily named Pandora's Jar, which adds a bunch of functionality to music-recommendation service Pandora. Most notably, Pandora's Jar will automatically download the tracks you hear on Pandora, carefully naming and tagging them first. It also features Last.fm integration, automatically adding tracks to your account as well as fetching album art, artist bios, and so on for display. Getting it set up isn't as streamlined as it could be, so you may want to check out the "noob's guide" before downloading. If you're in a hackish mood, you'll be happy to learn that Pandora's Jar is open source and built in Java, so presumably it will run on most platforms. I have no idea how well this app sits with Pandora's terms of service (my guess is poorly), so use at your own risk.

[Via Lifehacker]

Tags: download, mp3, music, pandora, pandora's jar, Pandora'sJar, recommendation

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Hasan said 3:06PM on 12-05-2006

Even better in my opinion is Audacity, which is a sound editing program that will also let you rip anything you listen to on your computer: radio stations, podcasts, Pandora, lastFM, etc... Just set the input to Stereo Mix via the dropdown, punch Record and rip away. Freeware.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Belsebub said 3:48PM on 12-05-2006

Well, you can't really compare this with audacity. It's like comparing appleas and pizzas - shure, you CAN save the sound from pandora using audacity, but does it split the stream into tracks? Does it tag based on the info from pandora?

Blin said 6:10PM on 12-05-2006

this program is pretty useful, except since pandora keeps updating, there have been maaaany updates. For some reason, its very inconsistent across systems. So if it doesnt work at first, your best off browsing the forums till you find someone who has the same problems as you and wait for a solution.
and you have to remember, while its downloading tags, you should NEVER skip a track or change channels. Baaad.
otherwise, its a good program :D

dave said 8:22AM on 12-06-2006

You need to install flash player 8 (not 9) for this work.

Parker said 11:09AM on 12-06-2006

So can anyone actually get this to work as advertised? I have it running (interface displayed, music playing) but Last.fm functionality is spotty at best and it refuses to grab any MP3s.

I keep getting "unable to rip MP3 unable to find file make sure you have Pandora running in a FIRFOX browser". Seems like a common error, according to my Google research. But I can't find a fix. I think an answer may lie at wildandbad.com but (wouldn't you know it) the web site's down. I'm running Mac OS X but I think that's irrelevant for this error.

So, in a nutshell: Last.fm info grabbing works only partially. Last.fm scrobbling doesn't work at all. iTunes integration has never worked on Mac. And the MP3 ripping is broken too. I don't mean to complain, after all, it's free software! But of all the reasons to use Pandora's Jar, none of them deliver. If I can't find a fix, it's back to PandoraFM for me, which doesn't promise as many features but at least works most of the time. :-)

Hasan said 2:45PM on 12-06-2006

That's the reason I mentioned Audacity, this jar is hard to get running. However I finally did it...

1)Install the Firefox browser and set it as your default browser ( http://getfirefox.com )
2)Install the (huge) Flash Switcher(win) extension, restart Firefox...
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3649/
3)Switch to Flash v.8 by clicking the Flash icon in the status bar and choosing the right version (the jar will NOT work with Flash 9).
4)Grab the Pandora jar... http://www.wirschell.nl/pandora/pandora.beta.7.4.0.zip
5)Create a file named Pandora, move it to C:\\
6)Open the pandora.bat in Notepad.
7)In third line that begins cd all the slashes are backwards, change them.
8)If necessary, change that same line so it points to the directory carrying Firefox.exe.
9)Run Pandora and the jar by clicking the pandora.bat.

That's it, mp3s are save id the Pandora/mp3 directory. Rip all tracks played by tyurning cruise control on, or leave it off and pick the tracks to rip by clicking Grab This Track.

Hope that helps.

Wilco said 12:28AM on 12-12-2006

Did they get that working again? I thought that project had died long ago after it stopped working.

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