A question for the hive since you guys know everything ...Pandora Radio content

So, I got a new Android recently. Its a quadcore Alcatel unit running 4.2.2 and is the stock software. I have had it for several weeks, and was very happy with it. It ran all my apps flawlessly. Pandora was great on this thing. On my last phone, it had trouble with skipping and was kinda not happy with all the ads and whatnot.

This new phone has been great, and I loved listening to Pandora on it...up until last night. Now Pandora is laggy...several minutes between songs is typical, sometimes the little wheel just spins, and other times, there is no wheel, but the controls (Play/pause, like/dislike etc) are greyed out. No other apps are having trouble, and browsers and other internet apps buzz along quite happily with the fancy pants processor in the arsenal. I havent updated the app recently or anything. The most frustrating part is that Pandora's ads, even the audio and video ones that would be more reliant on data/connection/processor capacity, always pop up without fail....just the music is having trouble.

Is there something up with Pandora right now? Solar flares bringing down the net? Elvis impersonators taking over the world? Or is the problem likely in my device? I know that asking the internet to diagnose my electronics is kinda like asking a fortune cookie about how to perform an appendectomy, but im just hoping others out there might have some insight...

switch to prime music.

http://www.amazon.com/b?node=8335758011

it allows you to download the songs to the device. No streaming etc.

Make sure there isn't an update out for Pandora that you don't have. Mine gets flaky if i don't keep up on the updates sometimes. Working fine on both our devices currently, though.

I keep current with the updates, and Pandora is either flawless or useless. I switched to iHeartRadio. More songs, lots more.

Also: Spotify is pretty awesome once you get the hang of it.

Grooveshark is also THE E36 M3. Any album ever? Yeah. You can listen to it.

I just got my first smart phone not too long ago. I'd been so used to pandora on my adblock equipped laptop that it drives me crazy using it.

Still not as bad as other streaming apps, one of which played the same ad three times in a row, one after the other, because I dared to move further along in the video.

Pandora is normally perfect on my iPhone 4s but there are days when it acts like you describe. No clue why.

Are you on wifi when it acts like this or 4G? If your local tower is busy you might be lower on the data que and getting slow service.

Are you streamijg over your 3/4g data connection or WiFi? I won't use anything other than WiFi for that reason.

Thanks guys...guess i just gotta tough it out. No updates out there, App store says its up to date. I guess I want to hang on to pandora cuz I have a few dozen stations (though lately I only bounce back and forth between a 90s Grunge artist and an EDM one). I also like that it helps me discover new artists.

So far I see Prime (unlikely, Pandora is free, just the way I like my music ), Spotify, Grooveshark, iheartradio...what else is out there? I used to use slacker, cant remember why I stopped???

when i first got a smartphone i started out using pandora. i dont remember why but i switched to slacker a while back and use that almost exclusively. i like a couple of their preset stations, havent had any issues with it so why switch?

In reply to 4cylndrfury:

I know why I stopped using slacker. I put in a death metal artist and the second song on the radio for it was slipknot.

I need some way of getting the iTunes Radio station Electronica - Downtempo at work where streaming is prohibited. I wish I could just purchase a 40hr playlist of recent music from a specific genre.

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: switch to prime music. http://www.amazon.com/b?node=8335758011 it allows you to download the songs to the device. No streaming etc.

Wait, you don't actually buy the music, you just store it on your device? Are they full sized MP3s? As in, will my meager storage get filled quickly with Prime Library Music?

PHeller wrote:

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: switch to prime music. http://www.amazon.com/b?node=8335758011 it allows you to download the songs to the device. No streaming etc.

Wait, you don't actually buy the music, you just store it on your device? Are they full sized MP3s? As in, will my meager storage get filled quickly with Prime Library Music?

You don't HAVE to download it.

Swank Force One wrote:

PHeller wrote:

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: switch to prime music. http://www.amazon.com/b?node=8335758011 it allows you to download the songs to the device. No streaming etc.

Wait, you don't actually buy the music, you just store it on your device? Are they full sized MP3s? As in, will my meager storage get filled quickly with Prime Library Music?

You don't HAVE to download it.

Yes, you can stream, but i like to download a couple album's for use at the gym(which is in a basement and has 0 signal).

I had this problem with pandora when I had a rooted phone with an adblocker installed. I theorized that they detected I wasn't consuming ads at the required rate for the service.

I dunno, I just want some sorta of revolving playlist that doesn't stream. Works blocks it and data plan is too small to stream. I hate buying MP3 because after about a year I don't listen to them anymore. I'd be interested in satellite radio if it weren't so expensive. Regularly radio in my area kinda blows.

Was playing with Pandora on mine, and had similar troubles, plus all the ads. IHeart has been much better. I've heard Spotify has improved and is also a worthy contender, but I've not bothered with it yet.

PHeller wrote: I dunno, I just want some sorta of revolving playlist that doesn't stream. Works blocks it and data plan is too small to stream. I hate buying MP3 because after about a year I don't listen to them anymore. I'd be interested in satellite radio if it weren't so expensive. Regularly radio in my area kinda blows.

Then you need to download files. No real way around it. You either have the files stored yourself, or you stream them.

Ok, so knowing that, are there any services that allow you to sorta rotate out playlists of musics stored in a library? I say "I like this music and this station, give me all of it." Then a few months later I can say "this bores me, give me the new stuff on this station."

The easiest thing I can think of is a good old recorder plugged into the speaker jack.

I don't think i'm following...?

Spotify is the E36 M3.

Spotify appears to have an offline mode. Might have to check that out.

NVM it's $9.99 a month and its music renting. I'm ok with music renting, but not at $10 a month.

Amazon Prime offers the ability to save playlists to a device for offline use. Since I've got Prime for Roku and X-Mas shopping, this may work, then again, once you ditch the Prime Subscription, there goes the music (I think.)

Wish I could help but my pandora runs flawlessly on my iphone. OTOH, I tried to add an artist(bloodhound gang) to my favorite station(90s alt) and it ended up with everything between Johnny cash and eminem...