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No Pandora Support on CarPlay, but Apple 'Continues to Be a Valued Partner'

I first started subscribing to Pandora One when iTunes Radio was released because although I loved the concept that iTunes Radio had, it was just too buggy for me to properly use. After a week of being frustrated that it would stop playing stations I created after the first 6-10 songs regardless of device or time waited between plays, I found out that Pandora already had an app.
 
Interesting...Streaming services are great except when you travel the country.
Even with Granfathered Unlimited Data I get the following letter

Important notice regarding data use policies and the temporary suspension of your data roaming

Dear

Your use of data while visiting other U.S. carriers' networks (sometimes called roaming or off-network usage) has exceeded 400MB - this is 16X the usage we provide you as a free benefit in your Wireless Customer Agreement.

Your off-network data privileges have been suspended for the rest of the billing cycle. This does not impact voice, text, or Wi-Fi usage, only your off-network data access. The suspension will be automatically removed at the start of your next billing cycle. Also, continued use of off-network data at this very high level in future months may result in permanent restriction while traveling on other U.S carriers' networks.

You're in control of where and how you use data.
 
Great, But...

This is honestly really good for all companies involved. Apple can try to dominate another space, while users can stop using the crapy car menus. But if you live in an area with poor Apple Maps, you really shouldn't use that. Just get Google Maps to bluetooth its audio to your car instead.
 
I'm sure this is simply a case of Pandora not being willing to agree to Apple's terms, at least until they see how big CarPlay will be. Neither company really needs the other: Pandora is already in plenty of car stereo systems (it's in mine, and it's not real high end), and Apple has its own service that functions much like Pandora. So there's just not much motivation to meet in the middle somewhere on this particular platform.
 
I think it's complicated

Doesn't everybody in Europe, where the announcement was made, use Spotify? Is Pandora good with the Euro labels and copyright? I don't know.

In other words, this is a licensing agreement, the software details will doubtlessly be worked out and the choices provided later. Ahem. That's the Apple way. With a new entry in the market, keep it simple. Go for the most popular services. Look for technical glitches first. If that is a hit in the market, go on to version two. Add more. Rinse, repeat. I use my iPhone 5 in the car with bluetooth audio, and video on the tiny screen. It would be better to have a set up that could give me a larger, simplified touch screen. Sometimes my iPhone is a pain, hitting the little controls on audio, etc. Controls that were on a larger touch screen, with large buttons and simple controls, would be great.
 
Rogifan said:
But the Spotify model is better for a lot or people (me included). It's rare that I use iTunes Radio. Only if they have exclusives that you can't here anywhere else. Not sure why the business model matters.
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itunes radio isn't very good.

pandora subscriber and a sonos user.
 
matthew12 said:
This is honestly really good for all companies involved. Apple can try to dominate another space, while users can stop using the crapy car menus. But if you live in an area with poor Apple Maps, you really shouldn't use that. Just get Google Maps to bluetooth its audio to your car instead.
Click to expand...

That's really depending on Apple not having worked on Maps since the launch, but they have. I imagine the results vary according to where you are. In Southern California, I haven't had a single problem with it. When I needed to take some buses because of car repairs, I used Google Maps. But where I've traveled, Maps has never steered me wrong, while Google sent me to an exit that had been closed about a year and a half before.
 
Rogifan said:
But the Spotify model is better for a lot or people (me included). It's rare that I use iTunes Radio. Only if they have exclusives that you can't here anywhere else. Not sure why the business model matters.
Click to expand...

I prefer pandora actually, iTunes Radio pales in comparison. I quite like the 'discover new music' engine they have.
 
I like how 99% of the dissenting comments reflect the standard pool of fans for both Pandora or Spotify: a vocal minority.
 
Nunyabinez said:
…..an album is meant to be consumed as a whole item, i.e. each song is a chapter. I imagine the artist agonizing about the right order of the songs, etc…...I'm probably very much in the minority here…...
Click to expand...

I'm with you all the way on this one; didn't think there were people left who like to put on an album --especially concept albums from the past-- and enjoy the whole thing in it's entirety.

Also, listening to whole albums makes you appreciate the better songs more.
 
Crappy Apple maps, poor 3rd party support.

No thanks, i'll stick with one of the many alternatives radio's that work with a wide variety of phones and don't require me to go out and buy a new luxury car.

I sure hope Apple has more in the pipline this year than CarPlay.
 
iTunes Radio has been such a disappointment, and still doesn't work well. Pandora is a superior product. Shame.

I'd like to see Pandora be supported by CarPlay and I'd like to see iTunes Radio improve to Pandora's level of quality.
 
I suspect that it's more likely that Pandora has exclusivity deals in place with its current in-car OEMs, and therefore isn't allowed to participate in CarPlay. That seems much more likely to me than Apple excluding them.
 
I never listed to internet radio until I tried Itunes Radios. I thought it was amazing but then I noticed that the same songs kept on repeating over and over again on each station. Sometimes it would be every other song.

I signed up for Pandora a few weeks and am now a fan! I Love the variety of songs each station has available and love the "Facebook Favorites" Station that pulls from your account if you sync it. I definitely enjoy the fact I am not tethered to iTunes as a requirement to access the radio as I am with music and movies. Would like to be able to access either of those freely from the web like I am with other services.
 
Seems somewhat obvious what Apple is doing here. They want to have involvement in all the main infotainment screens we use. iPhone is a screen in your pocket, iPad slightly bigger, and of course your computer. Those are more or less open platforms, although let's remember that iPhone was NOT an open platform when it was released.

TV they've taken more slowly, and gradually expanded the number of "channels" on the Apple TV platform. My guess is that by end of this year, they are going to open it up quite a bit.

Now cars. It's a similar model to Apple TV, in that they will have a limited number of partnerships at first. Ideally, at some point, it opens up as well. I sure hope so -- I would NEVER use Apple's Maps application to get anywhere! And I would also like to have Pandora on there, although I should probably get over it and check out Spotify, as I've found their stations can be very good. I buy tons of music as well, but love stations for setting moods and music discovery. Pandora's great at this, and I've been somewhat pleased with iTunes Radio.
 
I am sure Pandora signed an exclusive deal with Samsung for their copycat android based service.

Look out for those awesome Hyundai and Kia's !!
 
iTunes Radio and Spotify don't operate well over slow data connections (I'm looking at you T-mobile and Sprint outside of major cities!), while Pandora operates on even a GPRS connection! I avoid using iTunes Radio for this very reason and will continue to do so.
 
macs4nw said:
I'm with you all the way on this one; didn't think there were people left who like to put on an album --especially concept albums from the past-- and enjoy the whole thing in it's entirety.

Also, listening to whole albums makes you appreciate the better songs more.
Click to expand...

Funny, I feel the opposite. Listening to the whole album gets me into the habit of skipping parts I'm regularly not in the mood for before eventually dumping the whole album altogether when all that's left is a couple radio-centric songs.

That being said, albums with actual album continuity are terribly unappealing when you leave shuffle on.
 
For those that don't like iTunes Radio because its not as good as Pandora are not using it properly. Its not the same. When I first started using it, I thought Hmmm…its ok. Then I went in and customized the stations. My Hip-Hop station for example is based on 20 artists and 20 individual songs…I NEVER hear a repeat unless its one I have purposely said play more of and I am discovering tons of stuff I have never heard of. I think most people put in one artist or song and leave it at that. Once I started doing the customizing thing my stations became brilliant. Have not opened Pandora since.
 
I read pandora's statement as if it chose not to participate in car play, not that Apple excluded them.
 
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