Pianobar, Your Command Line Pandora Client

I’m an avid music listener.  Since I spend a lot of time either programming, designing, writing, or reading, I like to have background noise that usually takes the form of music.  But I’m also not a major consumer of music.  I don’t buy much music to add to my iTunes library; instead, I spend most of my time using online music services that allow me to listen to great music and discover new things.  Most of my time is spent with Pandora, though I often turn to The Hype Machine for a different flavor of music.

However, I despise Pandora’s web interface and their reliance on Flash (in fact, I’ve recently gone Flash-free on my Mac).  So imagine my excitement when I discovered Pianobar, a command-line Pandora client that is rich with features without the bloat of Flash or Adobe Air.  All you need is MacPorts or Homebrew to install Pianobar.  With MacPorts, use these commands:

$ sudo port install libao faad2 libmad cmake git-core
$ git clone git://github.com/PromyLOPh/pianobar.git
$ cd pianobar
$ cmake . && make && sudo make install

Homebrew is even easier.  Just run:

$ sudo brew install libao faad2 libmad cmake git

And you’re ready to go.  Just hit “?” if you need Pianobar’s list of commands.

+ love current song
– ban current song
a add music to current station
c create new station
d delete current station
e explain why this song is played
g add genre station
h song history
i print information about current song/station
j add shared station
m move song to different station
n next song
p pause/continue
q quit
r rename current station
s change station
t tired (ban song for 1 month)
u upcoming songs
x select quickmix stations
b bookmark song/artist

Just another step towards going GUI-free.

UPDATE: Reader David writes in to let me know that Pianobar is now part of MacPorts and is as easy to install by just using

$ sudo port install pianobar

Homebrew is just as easy. Simply run

$ sudo brew install pianobar

Thanks, David!