Listen to Pandora in Winamp

old
May 13, 2006
Updated • May 4, 2013
Music, Music and Video
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11

Pandora is an online music streaming service that creates custom radio stations for you based on the name of an artist, an album, genre or song that you enter. The playlists that it generates use music that the service believes is similar to what you have entered, increasing the chances that you end up with a radio stream that plays only music that you like. It is not only great for that, but also great for music discovery.

Unfortunately it's only available on their website and the developers offer no options to integrate the radio into music players like Winamp. Until now, that is.

You need the latest version of Winamp (5.21 at the moment). All you need to do is browse to the winamp directory, enter the plugins/ml/ folder and edit the file "ml_online.ini". Find the line that contains "ElementID7=-1" and replace it with the following lines:

  1. ElementID7=7000
  2. ElementIcon7=11003
  3. ElementSubbed7=1
  4. ElementName7=Pandora
  5. ElementURL7=http://www.pandora.com/?cmd=tunermini
  6. ElementID8=-1

Open Winamp again and head to Media Library/Online Services/Pandora. You will need an account with Pandora to make this work. If you have one you are ready to enjoy it in Winamp. (via: googlesystems)

Update: I can't verify if the workaround to play Pandora Radio in Winamp is still working, as Pandora has closed its service for all users that are not from the United States. While it is possible to use a vpn service to connect to Pandora, it is only really reliable if you pay for one, as free do not provide the bandwidth needed to enjoy Pandora for an extended period of time. If you are blocked from Pandora, you may want to try the HTTPS Everywhere workaround to bypass the restriction.

It also needs to be noted that the Winamp folder containing the file that you need to edit may be different, as Microsoft has made changes to Window's default system folder structure. I suggest you use Windows Search to find the file that you need to edit. Just click on the start menu orb, and enter the file name into the box there.

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Comments

  1. MV said on September 25, 2011 at 7:24 pm
    Reply

    I believe this does not work anymore. Pandora probably made changes to their site and patched this hack so it doesn’t work anymore.

  2. Dan said on December 21, 2010 at 9:34 pm
    Reply

    So, I am using the latest version of Winamp (5.6) with Windows 7(64). I found the ml_online.ini in C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Winamp\Plugins\ml, but there is no “ElementID” line.

    What do I do?

    Thanks for the help.

  3. Scott said on June 2, 2008 at 5:35 am
    Reply

    Yeah, it’s definitely in
    C:\Documents and Settings\myname\Application Data\Winamp\Plugins\ml

    not, c:\program files\winamp\ at all

    If you have it in c:\program files you are probably using like windows 98, if you’re not on 98 (come on, who is? you are? dumbass.. lol jk) then look in c:\documents and settings\

    I had to read 3 tutorials to figure this shit out. Thanks Jon :)

  4. Jon said on February 13, 2008 at 3:14 pm
    Reply

    For winamp 5.52

    Check

    C:Documents and Settings\Application DataWinampPluginsml

  5. Marisol said on January 20, 2008 at 6:15 am
    Reply

    Hello,
    I’m using Winamp 5.52, but there’s not a folder named ml in the Winamp folders on programfiles.

    any idea?

  6. Mastaabaita said on May 15, 2006 at 9:43 am
    Reply

    Works Great!

    Thanks for the info..

    Found a nice tool that grabs the MP3 files downloaded from Pandora.. tosses them into a folder and renames them with the track info.

    This way you can create your own playlists for later.

    http://3tunes.codingproject.com/

  7. Martin said on May 14, 2006 at 3:43 pm
    Reply

    do you have a different line ending with ElementID ?

    which version are you using ?

  8. Martyn Parker said on May 14, 2006 at 1:25 pm
    Reply

    My ml_online.ini file does not contain the line “ElementID7=-1”. I have tried adding the other lines but to no avail. Anyone got any ideas?

    Thanks

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