Google Music won't play high quality at first..how to force it?

[VashHT]

So I've been using all access on Google music and I'm enjoying it for the most part, but one thing annoys me about it. When I'm streaming music to my phone over data, even though I have it set to high quality streaming it defaults to some crap quality unless i let the song buffer for a little bit and then restart it. The app seems to buffer songs down the playlist after the first song you play, but I tend to skip around albums and artists so I run into this problem pretty often and it's starting to piss me off. I'd gladly wait an extra 10 seconds for my music to play at a decent quality and not sound like it's being played through a tin can.

Does anyone know a way to force it to play ONLY high quality, I feel like the old version of the app used to do this and it broke when they added the new options for streaming quality.

 

[PhoKingGuy]

Was thinking this exact same thing this morning. Lol I knew it wasn't just me.

 

[lopri]

Same here. I don't think there is anything you can do about it. (Kind of like YouTube)

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Damn I was just about to make this exact same thread. It annoys me so much especially since the low quality is extremely noticeable through my nice speakers/headphones.

 

[VashHT]

Do any of you guys have LTE phones? I was thinking it's because I'm using a nexus 4 and ATTs 3g is pretty congested around here. When I have a good data connection it doesn't seem to happen, when I was driving home yesterday it was fine.

 

[tommo123]

theres a HQ option in the app iirc

 

[VashHT]

theres a HQ option in the app iirc

Yeah I have that set, it still streams in low quality on occasion when switching songs. I think there used to be an option that was called "stream high quality only" or something like that and that would force it to buffer until it would stream HQ.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Do any of you guys have LTE phones? I was thinking it's because I'm using a nexus 4 and ATTs 3g is pretty congested around here. When I have a good data connection it doesn't seem to happen, when I was driving home yesterday it was fine.

Happens even with Verizon 4G LTE. Although for some reason, after making this post, it wasn't too bad this morning.

 

[dlock13]

I don't think I've ever, ever had this problem. The problem I do find myself having is it sometimes used to buffer forever on LTE but hasn't in probably a year. However, trying to stream on 3G is a joke on Verizon's network.

 

[erikiksaz]

Ah so I'm not the only one.

I've since downgraded to the first version of google music. The last 2 updates broke the sound quality of the first song of any album.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Its actually working better for me now. It never happens with my library music only new streaming music.

 

[PhoKingGuy]

I went from a Nexus 4 to an Xperia Z. It doesn't happen anymore oddly enough.

 

[VashHT]

I'm guessing it's due to the Xperia Z having LTE, I've noticed it hasn't been as bad for me lately but if I'm in an area with bad data coverage I'll get really poor quality streaming.

 

[lothar]

I've never experienced this issue, but then again I did hack my Nexus 4 to run on T-Mobile's LTE network since day 1.
Which carriers are you guys on? Could it be your carrier doing the packet sniffing(similar to what ISPs do to YouTube and Netflix)?