Pandora Downloader, or my first taste of a cat-and-mouse game with a platform

Before Leftshift, before any of it, I built a small C# tool that let people keep the Pandora songs they liked. This is the original 2007 post, recovered from a Wayback Machine snapshot after I found the live backlinks to it were dead.

Published by Sudhanshu on Jan 22, 2007

Recovered from a dead backlink. This post originally ran on Gyaan Sutra, the blog I wrote under my old company Vercingetorix Technologies, in January 2007, long before Leftshift, GoPay, or any of it. While auditing which sites still linked to sudhanshuraheja.com from that era, I found this one's actual destination page had been dead for years, the blog it lived on retired along with the domain restructuring that happened somewhere between here and 2026. I pulled the original text back from a Wayback Machine snapshot and I'm restoring it here close to verbatim.

Pandora Downloader : Installation Instructions

Posted 22 January 2007

Do not: It seems Pandora has fixed the bug which we had been exploiting to download music. But we have a few more leads, and are working on it. By the end of this week, you should be able to get your Pandora Downloaders running again.

Downloading and running the Pandora Downloader should be the easiest thing you would have ever done on the internet. There are no complicated options and no installers which fill your registry with data. Pandora Downloader is a simple c# application, which keeps you closer to your music. No complicated installation, just click and play. Here is the screen shot:

To run the Pandora Downloader:

  1. Download the .NET Framework from the microsoft site (Link: Dot Net Framework 2.0)
  2. Download the PandoraDownloader binary (Link: Pandora Downloader 1.0)
  3. Extract the binary using WinRar (Link: WinRar 3.70 Beta 2)
  4. Start Internet Explorer
  5. Go to site www.pandora.com and start the online radio. (Starts automatically)
  6. The songs which can be downloaded should not be visible. If they are not visible, press the Refresh button.
  7. When you are able to view the songs, select the ones you would like to download and click Download
  8. To view or play the downloaded songs, open Windows Explorer and go to address "C:\Pandora".
  9. Enjoy your music, even when you are not online.
  10. After you are done, to close the application, click Close

The key features in v1.0 include:

  1. Only download songs which you like, preventing cluttering your hard disk.
  2. It can also be used without running the actual radio.
  3. Queued Downloads.
  4. Check for duplicate files.
  5. Asynchronous Data Transfer.

I intend to add the following features soon:

  1. Multiple browser support (Notably firefox)
  2. A global database for song listing.
  3. Search option for song selection.
  4. Mp3 player inside the application.

In case you experience any difficulties, or would like to post your suggestions and feedback, please post a comment below or mail me at sudhanshuraheja at gmail dot com.

UPDATE: If you get an error which says "The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135). Click OK to terminate the application", you need to reinstall the Dot Net Framework.

UPDATE: Next release would be available on the 5th February, 2007.

UPDATE: As of today, Pandora Smuggler has crossed a 100 downloads. (Sourceforge) [There were 1537 during the last two hours]

UPDATE: In case you are using Internet Explorer 7, could you please comment if the Downloader is running fine or not. There might be an issue with Internet Explorer 7. I need your response to confirm the same. Thanks.

UPDATE: The problem was not with the browser version, but due to Pandora fixing the problem. We are working on a new solution. And it should be up by the weekend.

UPDATE: Pandora is dying….

UPDATE: Here is a new way to hear Pandora.com again if you are outside the US.