Pandora Premium--the rebirth of rdio!

Pandora responds.

Thanks for writing, and sorry for any confusion!

For now, Pandora Premium is only available on iOS and Android mobile phones with the latest version of the Pandora app.

We are actively working on making Pandora Premium features available through our website and more devices over the coming months.

In the meantime, you can use Chromecast or Apple AirPlay to amplify your listening experience.

Further, it is possible to access your My Music collection on some in-car audio systems. Let me know if you’d like more information about this.

Thanks for your patience.

Sara | Pandora
Listener Advocate
 
Pandora responds.

Thanks for writing, and sorry for any confusion!

For now, Pandora Premium is only available on iOS and Android mobile phones with the latest version of the Pandora app.

We are actively working on making Pandora Premium features available through our website and more devices over the coming months.

In the meantime, you can use Chromecast or Apple AirPlay to amplify your listening experience.

Further, it is possible to access your My Music collection on some in-car audio systems. Let me know if you’d like more information about this.

Thanks for your patience.

Sara | Pandora
Listener Advocate
I think it would have made more sense to piggyback off the Pandora radio service, but I guess there could be RIAA obstacles in place to stop that? This service would make a lot more sense for people if it worked on everything that currently supports Pandora (radio).
 
Pandora responds.

Thanks for writing, and sorry for any confusion!

For now, Pandora Premium is only available on iOS and Android mobile phones with the latest version of the Pandora app.

We are actively working on making Pandora Premium features available through our website and more devices over the coming months.

In the meantime, you can use Chromecast or Apple AirPlay to amplify your listening experience.

Further, it is possible to access your My Music collection on some in-car audio systems. Let me know if you’d like more information about this.

Thanks for your patience.

Sara | Pandora
Listener Advocate

o_O Hmmm... my 4S is hardly a mobile phone at this point in it's life since cellular service was long ago transferred to the 6S. I guess I won't bother pulling my 4th gen iTouch out of the desk to update the Pandora app.

Edit: just looked at my gmail account; I received essentially the same scripted response.
 
I think it would have made more sense to piggyback off the Pandora radio service, but I guess there could be RIAA obstacles in place to stop that? This service would make a lot more sense for people if it worked on everything that currently supports Pandora (radio).
Not real sure what you mean here. Piggyback? It does.

RIAA?

I'm inclined to think that their choice to limit Premium to phones only is more of a "beta 2" server/service load deal.
 
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On a related note. While the PP trial only offers full on-demand to phones, it upgrades free accounts to the Pandora Plus service on other devices.
:cool::confused::rolleyes:
 
So, good news. I let the car's Pandora button launch the app on my phone today. Now, in the List on the car's touchscreen, mixed in with my Pandora Stations, are the Albums I had saved to My Music. They play from the car's touchscreen. Yay!

Hopefully, the current album will pick up where it left off next time I hit the Pandora button. Sometimes this worked with artist stations, but more often than not it would launch in Shuffle mode. Annoying.
 
Steering wheel and touchscreen control of full albums. Voice too, I think, though I never use the car's voice control. Happy camper.

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Not real sure what you mean here. Piggyback? It does.

RIAA?

I'm inclined to think that their choice to limit Premium to phones only is more of a "beta 2" server/service load deal.
I thought there might be some legal reason to not have the service available on all the platforms that we currently have Pandora Radio. Once of the huge advantages of Pandora Radio is that it is everywhere. It is built into my old and new receivers, my Echo, my car's app, etc. The list goes on and on. However, for some reason, they chose to put this out in limited devices. I guess it could be their own option, but if they are trying to take advantage of any of the hype* around the launch, it seems to be coming off as a dud.

* As a side note, I have not seen much hype around the launch, but maybe they are going to do more when it is out of this "beta 2" mode.
 
I thought there might be some legal reason to not have the service available on all the platforms that we currently have Pandora Radio.
A reasonable assumption but Nah. Device/platform restrictions have been/are fairly common with certain "Hollywood" and television networks. But that's mainly related to twisted turds & clogs in the distribution chain (cable cos contracts, syndication interests, etc.) Music is a different critter being that it's both directly & indirectly licensed. If anything, the "RIAA" wants the widest exposure/revenue outlets as possible.

As to "piggybacking", Pandora Free, Pandora Plus, and Pandora Premium all share the same app and resources. In that respect, they have indeed gone whole hog. One app serves all and in-so-doing will eventually leverage their entire "install base". Upon login, your GUI flips to the appropriate service level. Who knows, that "little detail" right now may create certain unforeseen whoopsies that need tweaking.
However, for some reason, they chose to put this out in limited devices. I guess it could be their own option, but if they are trying to take advantage of any of the hype* around the launch, it seems to be coming off as a dud.
I know of, nor can I imagine any reason for this limitation other than "baby steps" sifting issues. That said, I am more than a bit surprised at the level of "half-bakedness" of PP given the time and assets they've had with to work.

There's alot on their plate of catching up to do related to the rest of the competition. And I have a laundry list of grins and gripes I've so far held off posting here since my December-February ride. Post NDA, I didn't want to "soil" any first impressions. Now that some takes/reviews are beginning to stroll in, it's probably high time I take the gloves off. :):(

Meh, AM, et.al. all had their share of launch woes as well. So at this point, all we can do is either bitch about not having a complete and seamless service--right fukin now, or bitch that they never gave us a peek inside the oven 6 months early. Poor bassards.....No good deed goes unpunished?
:rflmao:
 
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The latest app update now shows Pandora Premium under subscription on my iPad and Android tablets, but still only allows radio, no album play. Still working great on the phone!
 
I’ve been somewhat hanging out in the wings waiting to hear from others personal experience before I weighed in with my “seasoned” 3 month take on Pandora Premium. Didn’t want to soil or preclude anyone’s “first take” judgment so to speak. Anyway, here’s my Pandora Premium Grins n’ Gripes so far.

Grins :)

  • Music station/auto-playlist algorithm/curation is very good. Best in class. :bowdown:
  • Clean uncluttered GUI. Your collection is front and center. :thumbsup:
  • No promoted content “suggested” above the fold :D
  • Music segues and overall playlist flow is well above average :rockon:
  • Lyrics available on select tracks :angel:
  • Filtered out “cover band” tracks (a few gaps but way better than most) :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Gripes :(
  • Upon app launch it auto plays last played track/station. :confused::mad:
  • No “always on top” home banner—i.e.My Music/Browse/Search—big issue when yer drilled down & in. :mad::rolleyes:
  • No Gapless playback!!! :thumbsdown::thumbsdown::thumbsdown:
  • No swipes. Left swipe to track to advance; Right swipe to repeat or nav back.:cool:
  • No “que peek”/real-time edit on playlists :cool:
  • No Continue Play when playlist is exhausted. (coming soon) :(
  • No radio slider (degrees of diversity on artist/song seeded stations) :(:(
  • No Artist only or Label only radio :thumbsdown: :idea:
  • No social track commentary and "rovi-like" meta data :(
  • CCA casting has a bigtime bug. Upon sleep or not being primary window it loses focus/control of the current CCA stream. Waking the app, it starts a 2nd “new” auto-playing instance on the phone. Boo hiss! :mad:
All in all, it’s a work in progress that has some rough edges and a shit-ton of catching up to do. Hopefully most of these virgin & major gripes will get worked on and sorted out in the coming months.

Still, I’m left wondering big-time why the hell they just didn’t “plug rdio back in” and then fine tune from there. Rekon it’s bigger can of bloated back-end worms marrying Rdio of old with Pandora of new…and that’s giving them all the damn line I can imagine. :wtf:

They shoulda put me in charge of product development! :D


--There are other considerable particulars missing from what rdio had on their desktop app but since a PP desktop is not here yet…I’ll leave those crispy boogers for if and when the time comes.
 
Just guessing, but perhaps the Rdio API was old school SOAP, and they wanted to move to a more modern, lighter weight OData/REST/Json API. Dunno.
 
Just guessing, but perhaps the Rdio API was old school SOAP, and they wanted to move to a more modern, lighter weight OData/REST/Json API. Dunno.
It is too bad when new tech eliminates great features, if that is what is happening. I still miss Windows Media Center, so I like to hold onto stuff that "just works". I also miss using the enter key as opposed to the tab key for some programs, but it is what it is. Actually, new versions of Windows seems to come with a lot of compromises. We have one program that now requires you to use the mouse about 100 times more often than the preceding version of the program. Maybe the programmers are just stupid, but they are blaming it on new versions of Windows.

I got an email for the 60 day trial, so they must be comfortable rolling it out to more people. Too bad it is missing so many features that made Rdio unique. I always thought that if Rdio had money for better marketing, the many unique features would keep a lot of people on board. I was hoping for the same thing when Beats bought Mog, but they stripped it from many of the same features (continuity and radio slider) when they bought it.
 
Poked around GitHub, several rdio projects up there. Didn't dig too deeply, but several involved SWF, which means they were using Adobe Flash. Yuck. Bloated, buggy, insecure, unsupported on modern browsers. Pandora is hopefully running quickly away.
 
Too bad it is missing so many features that made Rdio unique.
Indeed. [sigh] Sadly this biz is all consumed with an assembly line mentality.[/sigh] Westergren eluded to a fresh new take and I'd hoped that meant leveraging some of rdio's best kept "secrets". So far, that's yet to be seen. :( FUH.......
 
Indeed. [sigh] Sadly this biz is all consumed with an assembly line mentality.[/sigh] Westergren eluded to a fresh new take and I'd hoped that meant leveraging some of rdio's best kept "secrets". So far, that's yet to be seen. :( FUH.......
It is pretty sad. Mog and Rdio had a lot of the same cool features and unfortunately, they were the two that got bought out. I have learned to live with some of the shortfalls, but I admit that it is a pain to not have continue play and the radio slider (at a minimum). I guess the good news is the "For You" section in Apple Music is much better than the suggestions in MOG, but it would be nice to have a full featured app that does all the stuff of Rdio/Mog, while still allowing me to use Siri. :mad:
 
Just guessing, but perhaps the Rdio API was old school SOAP, and they wanted to move to a more modern, lighter weight OData/REST/Json API. Dunno.
Adopting rdio's concept & schick is really not that big deal from a coding perspective. They bought the golden goose...regardless of platform. Handed the source code, any 3rd level programmer could clone rdio's featrure set in a Silicon Valley minute.

I believe my/our noted shortfall is mainly a round table meeting priority/willingness issue.:(
 
I have learned to live with some of the shortfalls, but I admit that it is a pain to not have continue play and the radio slider (at a minimum).
Ditto. Spotify of late however is taking up some of this slack. They now have Continue Play. Along with gapless playback...this is a most welcome sunrise.:)
 
Premium now available on the Samsung tablet, but not on the iPad. Weird.

Supposedly Sonos Direct Connect coming by EOM. I've never tried It with Spotify, and didn't bother with Google Play Music much, but I do like Pandora's UI on the tablet, so look forward to it. The artist bios are great.

Hope it doesn't get out of synch like it does via Chromecast. PITA. I expect it won't, Google never did via Sonos Direct Connect, so...
 
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