Using skip causes songs to be -00:40/00:42 with no audio.

[AdamMagaluk]

As of tonight 2012-09-09 11pm EST iv'e noticed that when using the skip functionality "n" within a station it causes all songs in that station to be 42 seconds long with no audio. Restarting pianobar does not help. However it only effects the station that you skipped in.

I'm guessing its caused by Pandora maybe to block these types of work around programs, any ideas?

[PromyLOPh]

I can’t reproduce the issue. Temporary problem perhaps?

[KendallHopkins]

I'm having the same problem (started today). First happened after skipping a song on one channel. I can listen to any station but if I skip a song I seem to get fed the 42 seconds of silence. The station stays locked to the 42 seconds of silence (for every song), even after logging in and out. Even going to pandora.com has the same results. Switch stations doesn't seem to cause this to happen. It feels like an attempt to prevent excessive skipping.

[PromyLOPh]

Ah, now I see the same issue. Looks like I can’t do anything about this
though, as it is a server-side limitation and there’s no flag in the
playlist response that could be used to detect this case. I wonder why
Pandora does not return an error any more…

[nogweii]

I just had the same issue - I was able to play songs on a different station using Pandora's web interface. I closed the tab and started digging around the code. Didn't find anything, but I did end up wasting a few minutes. Afterwards, I can hear music again via pianobar.

Perhaps a time delay now?

[KendallHopkins]

Maybe a soft skip limit could be implemented to warn users that they are about to trip this problem.

[PromyLOPh]

Maybe a soft skip limit could be implemented to warn users that they
are about to trip this problem.
Sure, that’s an option. For the record: I’ve skipped a lot of songs now
and don’t get the 42 seconds of silence any more.

[rlex]

Happened with me just now. Opened pandora website, and what i see? Even on website i see 0:42 tracks. Looks like it's server-side problem?

[PromyLOPh]

Looks like it's server-side problem?
Replace “problem” with “protection” and the answer to your question is
“yes”.

[acertain]

Seems to be gone!

[theAntiBob]

Seems to be back... Skipping a song (just one press of n) immediately plays 42 secs of silence claiming to be the next track's title and continues playing 42sec silent tracks with playlist titles indefinately (as far as I can tell)
Changing stations will play audio again, but switching back to a station that has had a song skipped resumes playing 42sec blank tracks. Another client is not having this problem, so it must be pianobar.
Even (first) had this issue when starting pianobar right after closing another client (pithos) and selecting the same station I was playing.
Having this issue with pianobar-2012.12.01 and pianobar-2013.09.15
Did not include any flags when compiling

[fijimunkii]

I got a case of the 42s

[acertain]

Yep it's back. Only happens for me when I skip a lot of songs in a short period of time.

[fijimunkii]

Just happened to me for the first time, and I haven't skipped a track all day.

[fijimunkii]

Full tracks flowing again after about an hour of 00:42 silence

[PromyLOPh]

Looking at #415 I doubt there is much I can do about this
server-side-crazyness.

[nabeards]

Definitely stuck in this same situation. The process was:

• Start pianobar
• Playlist received
• Played four songs
• Playlist received
• Played four songs
• Playlist received
• First song started, then got error "Cannot access audio file: Forbidden.
• Repeat for second song, then third song
• Hit Ctrl-C to quit
• Started piano bar
• Now just 00:42 silence over and over

All plays fine in Chrome from Pandora.com. I'm running OS X 10.9.2, pianobar installed from brew version 2013.09.15.

Let me know what I can provide to help troubleshoot!

[theAntiBob]

the easiest workaround (at least for me) is to simply change stations for "a while" whenever 42sec dead air tracks start playing. it seems other stations don't pick up the 42s when one station does.
switching back to the original station immediately won't cure the 42s, but after [a couple minutes?] playback on the original station will be possible again.

[SevenBits]

@PromyLOPh Hate to revive this thread, but this happens to me as well, on both the iPad and apps based on pianobar.

[rmelcer]

This started happening to me after I signed up for Pandora One (and skipped songs rapidly on a station).

Removing the #Pandora One section content from ~/.config/pianobar/config fixed the problem for me. Then, I skipped ~24 songs by switching stations back and forth and was able to reproduce the problem again. Could this have something to do with the partner_user field and/or anything else under the #Pandora One section of the config file?

If so, maybe multiple alternative configurations could be added?

CC @PromyLOPh

[PromyLOPh]

Well, you can try one of those listed here[1], but if you hit the
rate/skip limit you’ll be back to these 42 seconds of silence. I don’t
think there’s anything I can do, apart from implementing skip limits.

[1] http://6xq.net/playground/pandora-apidoc/json/partners/#partners

[hgpt]

Same over here. I've tried a lot of apps on my Mac: Pandorita, PandaBar, Hermes, Piano,...
After trying so many apps and obtaining the same result, it seems that the problem is an external one, related to Pandora itself, rather than an internal one. Having so many other users complaining over here about the same problem, it's more than enough to convince me that there's nothing wrong with my Mac or the players, but with Pandora.