Pandora Proxy
May 6th, 2007 · by David Bradley
If you are not acquainted with Pandora, then you really ought to get to know her, she is a virtual radio station who provides subscribed users with the chance to hear new music they are bound to like on the basis of the old music they tag as enjoyable. If you already know Pandora then you will no doubt unlocked her secret box and found a stack of new tunes and bands to listen to over the last couple of years.
But. If you are outside the USA, Pandora is now legally obliged to keep her international box tightly shut because of new radio licensing restrictions that have come into effect. Yet another side-effect of the music industry’s efforts to clamp down on pirating and file sharing. So, is there a way to open Pandora’s box outside the US.
Interestingly though, and we are not condoning this but merely pointing out a possible loophole, non-US Pandora users can still access the service with a little bit of guile and technical know-how. Frantic Industries has full instructions on the workaround, but you might like to know that they boil down to nothing more than choosing a proxy for your browser. Indeed, many people outside the US make perfectly legitimate use of a US-based Pandora proxy at their company headquarters or institution, for instance, for privacy and performance reasons. If those people can access Pandora in this way, then there is no reason why others cannot a legit proxy to keep up with the service either.
You can find proxies at the following sites list on the FI site:
Once you have the URL go to Firefox, open Tools - Options - Advanced - Network - Settings - paste in the proxy settings you got from the site. There is even a proxy manager plugin for Firefox that allows you to toggle between different proxies and no proxy so that if one fails at any time you can switch to another or back to no proxy for normal browsing.
http://tools.rosinstrument.com/proxy/
http://www.publicproxyservers.com/
http://www.proxz.com/
http://www.stayinvisible.com/
You could also try installing The Orb and/or Hotspot Netshield. UPDATE: Hotspot Shield, or another VPN, seems to be the way forward for international users as it basically spoofs your IP address making your browser appear to be in the US.
But, like I say, I am not condoning such a workaround or the use of a Pandora Proxy, I’m just pointing out the ludicrous nature of a law that forces Pandora to keep box tightly shut to prying ears beyond the USA. Happy listening.
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16 responses so far ↓
Tom // May 13, 2007 at 10:59 am
Sadly this didn’t work for me
David Bradley // May 14, 2007 at 7:56 am
Did you try all the proxy servers?
Rick Me // May 15, 2007 at 3:48 pm
I have tried tons of proxies to no avail. If you do manage to make it work, please let me know. I think a SSH tunnel would work, but haven’t tried it yet.
David Bradley // May 15, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Rick, I just logged in to Pandora with no problems, and I am outside the US right now…
I am using OpenDNS for my DNS servers, but not sure whether that would be the solution. I’ve got a review of OpenDNS coming up soon on Sciencetext, check back later or get the settings from their site right now and give it a try.
Roger Colbeck // May 24, 2007 at 3:40 pm
David:
Is Pandora still working for you outside the US? Have you experimented to see whether OpenDNS has anything to do with it? I desperately want to get Pandora working for me in Canada but am having problems with proxies. I haven’t tried OpenDNS yet but I’m skeptical that it would be a solution.
Thx, ..Roger
David Bradley // May 24, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Pandora was working fine for me in the UK, last time I checked, which was after I wrote this post. Incidentally, I have a write-up about OpenDNS coming up real soon. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsfeed to find out more.
M45on // May 26, 2007 at 8:11 pm
It hasn’t been shut down in the UK so it has nothing to do with OpenDNS. Don’t waste your time.
David Bradley // May 26, 2007 at 8:33 pm
Aah, that would explain how I can still connect to it…OpenDNS looks like fun and games though for avoiding phishing problems and speeding up your browsing.
thisworks4me // Jun 10, 2007 at 7:14 pm
Matthew May 24th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
I’ve successfully connected to Pandora from Canada using HotSpot Shied from http://www.hotspotshield.com/. Simply install the executable then go to http://www.hotspotshield.com/launch/ to login. You can connect to Pandora or surf via proxy. Disconnect via the system tray icon. Easy.
hotspotshield !! // Jun 20, 2007 at 8:53 pm
hotspotshield works great for me !! thanks a lot !
David Bradley // Jun 20, 2007 at 9:03 pm
Glad to hear it Mr Hotspotshield. Where can Sciencetext readers get said applet?
Edgar // Jun 29, 2007 at 2:17 pm
hotspotshield works great for me too! Thank you very much!
David Bradley // Jun 29, 2007 at 2:25 pm
Thanks for letting us know Edgar
David Bradley // Jul 13, 2007 at 3:08 pm
Wired is reporting that SoundExchange does not intend to enforce royalty payments on internet radio stations. This is great news for Pandora users, as Pandora was on the verge of being shut down because of this debacle.
Jonathan Kos-Read // Dec 3, 2007 at 6:39 am
Secure-Tunnel works great as well and is faster than hotspot shield.
I was using HSS for a while but then kept getting “quota exceeded” message. it never worked again.
STunnel is about 8 bucks a month.
Ookami Sicarius // May 9, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Im having no luck with any of these, Ive tried many different proxies and other things to try and get onto Pandora, I followed the instructions… I fear Im at the end of the rope on this.
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