Just found something helpful - Pandora's windows client CPU usage can be greatly reduced by staying OFF the Now Playing, My Collection, and even Browse screens. For instance, my CPU usage goes down from 6-8% down to 2-3% if I bring up My Profile. The Desktop Windows Manager process goes from 4%-1% as well. And yes, there is actually a noticeable performance difference on my old laptop (Lenovo X1 series 6 - not a slouch). Almost 10% of the machine is getting lost to a task that Elpis used only 1-2% for. I suspect it is the silly animations that run on the main screens - even in background, even when PAUSED (for Pete's sake) - that is chewing up so many resources. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be a way to turn that off. I'm still in the market for a real solution coming from Pandora. But based on the responses so far, I canceled my subscription. Face it, the Amazon Music client is a bit better behaved, the music 'stations' are similar, and I get it as part of Prime. Pandora - first one out with a fantastic way to discover wonderful music and perform it on multiple platforms. But unwilling to stay competitive by supplying a quality client to access it with.
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