Well that's it. Finally unsubscribing from these forum threads after a couple years (and many many more before this forum). Seems it's all but futile. This is not the same Pandora. Good luck to all that remain. ... View more

@Bri-an Pleasure. I do wish they'd come to the table again. Honestly, ever since they were acquired by SiriusXM the forthrightness and general involvement has plummeted. I've no real way to say whether that's directly related, but it doesn't seem far-fetched. At any rate, I've no idea why I'm showing up in these parts since I've been non-paying for almost exactly a year now (after nearly a decade and a half of giving them money and talking up their Premium service tier) ... and I guess I've just never bothered to unsubscribed from email notifications for a handful of threads here. 🙂  Best to you, man. Happy listening, however you get it done. ... View more

@Bri-an Ah, that's understandable. PA/Voice integration is entirely unimportant to me personally (I find, even today with good integrations, browsing and playing often takes longer than just doing it myself unless it's something very specific). I prefer Qobuz for their far less "billboard top" approach and incredible curation, in the form of "Panoramas" as they call them, which are really just editorial pieces on various artists, music genres, periods of time, etc. with matching playlists - a lot like music mag articles of days past but which play the music they speak to.  Yeah, for "radio" I still do use Pandora's ad-supported tier. The "genome" algorithm is still great for me with as much play history as we have with Pandora for more than 15 years. I use Spotify's free tier as well just fill in the occasional Qobuz catalogue hole but that's becoming more infrequent. (I don't care for Spotify's UI either, but it's better to me than Amazon's). Deezer is still my favorite for 320kbps and/or Redbook CD quality FLAC (and just generally - their interface is really well done, but that's partially a matter of taste). ... View more

@Bri-an Sorry, but that response from Tanner in the link (from Sept this year) is literally, verbatim, the same response I've received from Pandora reps regarding this issue since asking every 2 years or so starting around 2011, both in this forum and in direct email correspondence. And, that is always where the conversation ends. Word for word, the same response for nearly a decade. (And regarding Amazon, I understand, but personally it's not just philosophical for me; I cannot stand their UI, and they are simply not a music-oriented business. They're a data mega-warehouse, leveraging the questionable practices they've employed for ages now.) ... View more

@Bri-an Ugh. At least move to Qobuz or Deezer.... Heck even Tidal is better than giving more money to Amazon. ... View more

I've been asking about this for 5 years now. Initially it was a canned "it's coming" responses. For the last two years it's been nothing but silence. ... View more

@jrlynx13 the sound quality is no different between Plus and Premium... only the ability to play complete albums, or select specific songs. (It's really, really well executed and my favorite of all the services in terms of usability, but yeah... the SQ has been lacking for a very long time.) ... View more

@FLuser I signed up for Qobuz with a yearly on sale (not sure if the promo is still active) that came to around 12.50/mo. Considered Amazon briefly and used to purchase music from there, but frankly I'm not giving them anymore money (they've enough). I'd rather pay an entity that specializes in audio delivery ... the curation alone is worth it to me. Amazon is fine for data storage and virtual services but beyond that I'm not interested. Anything that doesn't come with my Prime membership no-strings I leave alone. ... View more

@FLuser It's sort of hard to directly compare Qobuz with Pandora - the interfaces are entirely different and the focus is as well. It works great via Bluesound or Sonos, and the mobile app is great itself. My favorite thing is the desktop app (and mobile to a lesser extent) ... They have many, many, many playlists as well as "Panoramas" as they call them. It's more for focused listening and to me it rather feels like having a subscription to an old music mag, like Rolling Stone or Paste, that also plays hi-res music (the best I've heard in terms of quality) while you read. It's fantastic but very different, and that's why I still use free Pandora occasionally - it's algorithm like so many mention is unbeatable for casual listening, and I've realized that when I am just listening casually I usually am not paying enough attention to be bothered by the lower quality. The ads are a little annoying but they're not frequent. So between the two I'm sorted. That's been my last six months anyhow and I'm digging it. ... View more

@FLuser exact same story with myself. Have asked again and again. Back in January I finally jumped ship (I was a paid Premium subscriber for years) and signed up for Qobuz which is nothing short of incredible. I still use free Pandora for just casual listen and to find new stuff. Actually, since Pandora doesn't seem interested in high bitrate audio, this combo works great.  ... View more

Moderators - whoever just merged the last comment from Troy didn't understand that comment. It has little to do with higher bitrate file requests that this thread/topic is about.  ... View more

@BreenX Given that this has been a promised upgrade for the better part of the last decade, I'd be surprised (pleasantly though) if anything comes of it. It seems Pandora is far less responsive since the Sirius/XM ownership occurred to be honest.  Try out Qobuz - so much better than Amazon and Tidal in my opinion. Between that and ad-supported Pandora for occasional radio listening (cuz Genome algorithm prediction just can't be beat, still) I've been amazingly happy for the past month or two since leaving Premium Pandora behind. Sad but true. ... View more

I just left Pandora after being nearly continuously subscribed to Plus and then Premium since early 2005. The moment FLAC (or perhaps even 320kbps) is brought to the platform, I'll be back. But I finally got tired of being told the same thing "it's coming in the future". I'm out. Let me know when we reach the future.  ... View more

Today I left Pandora after almost 16 years of continuous paid-use. Please listen up Pandora.... I've been with you since 2005. I was the first person of anyone I knew to pay for the subscription. Every year. I even kept my Plus account paid and active while I was out of the US (and couldn't even use it) for nearly 2 years. I've been a Premium subscriber now since it was first offered on a select invitation basis only, then transitioned into full trial period and almost immediately over to full paid and have been with it ever since. I've only had short windows of non-subscription, nones since moving to Premium. Today, after all these years, I left. For years now I have asked about higher bitrate streams numerous times and have always received (and read elsewhere) the same copy/paste response from multiple Pandora spokespersons. It reads as such: "We are constantly testing and evaluating what the right rates are for each setting level and do plan to migrate our high audio quality to 320kbps AAC over time." This is what I've been politely told before Premium existed almost 10 years ago. It's what I've been told since  Premium arrived. It's what I was told the day before I canceled. This is no longer good enough. And so I'm finally gone. (But certainly not to Amazon --- come on people! there are far better options than Bezostunes.)  I'll still access ad-supported Pandora radio sometimes (and perhaps Plus if I can't stand the ads which is possible), but for now I've finally gone elsewhere (and am enjoying Qobuz immensely, much more than expected).  There's nothing to match the Pandora interface and Genome Project based algorithm, but again, it's no longer enough. I'm finally done waiting. The moment you add FLAC (I might settle for 320kbps, but let's just move ahead completely shall we?) to the Premium "high quality" stream delivery, I'll be amongst the first to return. Until then, after a decade and a half, it's your turn to make a move.  Let me know. Cheers and thanks for the tunes. ... View more