Ideas: Higher Audio Quality

[pboser]

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

[MarkMusic]

they need to offer Pandora HD and do raw CD quality, and charge $10
more for those of us who like QUALITY.

I contacted management about this like a year ago and they sent me
here to start a thread.
Then the thread already existed so someone merged it.

I even told them I didn't want any credit for it cause I was
listening to better quality sound
35 YEARS AGO with CDs and there's a whole generation that has no clue
about quality sound..
With MP3 drums sound like cardboard and the loss of quality in the
other sounds is terrible.

What can you do... they just dont care.

Tidal is the best service I've found so far and I've compared to
Apple, Amazon, Pandora, Spotify.
the only drawdown is that NOTHING compares to Pandora's Genome
technology to choose
the best music for your stations, etc.

If they'd offer CD quality it would be a game changer. Since Sirius
XM bought them... its probably
a side gig now.

[mcox82]

Terrible audio quality for a paid subscription.  Waste of my money.  

Screeches and scratchy.  No reason why it cannot be much better quality.  What is Pandora doing with our subscription money?  Seems audio quality would be no. 1 on their feature list.

[MarkMusic]

They will become a Blockbuster Video in a "Netflix" world if they don't keep up

[Pjd813]

There are already three tiers of subscription and I feel better audio should be one of the basic upgrade benefits, along with eliminating ads. It should not in any way be considered a “premium” benefit where one pays the most expensive subscription price to receive better sound. IMHO the basic concept of the Genome based system is the semi random nature of delivery. I liken it to having my own personal DJ who makes decisions on the fly to give me a personalized, ever changing open ended experience. I personally don’t care for “curated” content. Quality sound should be assumed to be a basic, cornerstone feature of the product. In this context the playlists, repeat functions and other manipulations of the delivery of music should be considered “extra” and “premium”.  

[mcmusic]

I’d be interested to hear from someone at Pandora on the likelihood of a lossless/cd quality. 

Seems everyone here agrees that Pandora algorithms are better than the competition when it comes to stations, lists etc. I’ve discovered some pretty cool bands here. The hi res streaming is just bandwidth at this point. That keeps increasing. I have 1gbps fiber now at my house.  With the cloud getting cheaper by the day, what is the reason not to offer this?

I’ll be leaving for tidal here soon most likely. Don’t want to, but my dac, headphones and amp demand it. Paying for 2 services for music isn’t worth it. 

[freddiep7]

Well, I canceled my membership. I mean why pay for **ahem** sound while they have the free service. I specifically told them I was canceling due to the Subpar sound and it was as if I didn't even mention it lol. Made me think, WTH is going on over there? It's crazy that they don't care to improve the service. Oh well, there are other services that have better sound but not the algorithm. Amazon music has Great sound (HD, Ultra HD, Dolby Atmos, 360 3D Music) but the app and algorithm are not great. It's getting better at predicting for me though. The only reason I got Amazon music is that someone in my family is sharing it with me. Hopefully, they improve in the near future and I'll come back.  

[Jpoole52777]

Upgrade The sound quality

[jab6string]

Many of us would pay for this feature.  Add this and gapless playback (vote) and Pandora will be a stronger streaming competitor.  Pandora, go big with your updates!

[Pjd813]

When I pay for elimination of commercials I should also get higher quality audio. By paying at all I feel that is a major vote of confidence and commitment to a service I can get for free, albeit with commercials. I shouldn’t have to pay for quality a la cart or have to go to the level that offers other “features” I don’t want or need, like playlists.
Pete D.

[MarkMusic]

I totally agree however with the caveat that if the reason they
can't/won't do it is the increase in overhead due to the increase in
bandwidth necessary for high quality I'd be willing to pay a little
extra for it. $5.99/mo or whatever.