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Ideas: Higher Audio Quality

Ideas: Higher Audio Quality

pboser
Underground
Status: Open Ideas

How about higher audio quality?  Amazon has introduced this feature, and others have been ahead of Pandora as well.  It would be great to have the Genome Project advantage with higher audio quality.  Do others agree?

Moderator Edit: Edited title for clarity

Labels (1)
318 Comments
SMR
Underground

I think that's right. Pandora was way out in front in the area of content selection, but Apple's machine learning caught up and the audio quality on Apple Music is in a completely different league. I left Pandora for Apple Music, and I appreciate Apple Music's deeper catalog and (now) better music discovery...and of course vastly better sound quality, which is the primary point. Although some spatial audio remasters on Apple Music are better than others, overall it's a great new experience. It's also nice to be part of something that continues to get better, with dedicated development effort. Maybe one day Pandora will start evolving again, but we haven't seen an indication of that in years.

chulohock
Underground
I'm on Android and I just checked the top grossing in the Google Play store. It's showing Pandora in the number one slot, iHeartRadio in the number two slot and Apple Music in the number three slot.

I think you just got me interested in giving Apple Music for Android another shot.

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MarkMusic
Local Performer
I agree with everyone's comments. SiriusXM bought Pandora in Feb
2019 and abandoned it. But the quality on SiriusXM is pretty lousy
too. They don't seem to be much for quality. and thing about
it... any reasonable company would have someone on here responding
to us all. nothing.
jhnmdahl
Local Performer

Pandora seems to still be living in the '00s, where quality isn't a factor.  I can't believe a paid subscriber doesn't get a better bitrate than a free member on phones or on streaming devices like a Roku, and the bitrates they do provide are sort of absurd.  Interested in higher quality options that others have found...

chulohock
Underground
I'm currently enjoying Apple Music on Android.

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Adubs
Opening Act
I have just been buying music from bandcamp. Hard to beat their platform as
you get DRM free FLAC files. When it comes to streaming I use my personal
internet connection to serve up my library via Jellyfin. This route isnt
for everyone, but it doesnt compromise on freedom and quality.

Others have bought into Tidal. That may give you decent quality but is
neither lossless nor free from nonsense. Them pushing the whole MQA snake
oil keeps me away forever. I would encourage others to reconsider.
chulohock
Underground
I'm in my mid-50s so I know what it's like to do things the old-fashioned way when it comes to music consumption. That said, I'm going to take a closer look at this bandcamp/jellyfin setup. Thanks for the tip!

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Stereosonic
Underground

Pandora really needs to switch to lossless CD quality and higher resolutions up to at least 192/24 and the highest DSD rates. Although Spotify has been dragging it’s feet about as long as Pandora in offering higher quality streaming rates at least they comment every few years or so in their community about it although it is almost like not commenting on it at all as they basically brush it off and the Spotify community request for lossless audio has been going on since 2014! Has 25,874 votes and 442 pages of comments and is I believe the number one request they have.  Get off your duff Pandora and get ahead of the competition again!

Moderator Edit: Link sharing

Adubs
Opening Act

Quality post right there... I agree with basically everything said here ^^

 

Only caveat is, for my kind of music, on my equipment, MP3 at 320kbps or 192VBR would be an acceptable compromise... though I would just as well prefer lossless too.

cabotcove
Underground

Echoing this in that I would be more than happy if Pandora would give us 320/256 at least — especially on at home devices. Higher bitrates on mobile would be great to. How are we still streaming it at 128 mp3 over wifi like it’s 2005???

Pandora will always win for me hands down in terms of algorithm and the ability to play my stations on shuffle. But the sound quality is subpar at best — really lousy in the bigger picture.