Why Do My Songs Keep Cutting Out on Pandora?

Pandora is a popular music streaming app, with over 250 million registered users. A frustrating situation that may happen while streaming music on Pandora is songs cutting out while being played. The most common cause of songs cutting out is a slow internet connection, causing the songs to buffer while being played. Fixing your internet and switching to a lower quality audio setting will speed up the loading speed, allowing you to listen skip-free.

Adam Goldkamp is the editor / author responsible for this content.
Apr 28, 2020

Pandora is a music streaming service with 250 million registered users. Pandora offers a paid premium version and a free version that includes advertisements. For a monthly fee, you can access Pandora Premium, which consists of the ability to choose and play any song, download songs, and have no ad interruptions during your music streaming experience. When you are streaming a song with Pandora, you may experience pauses or cutting out that can be frustrating. In this guide, you will learn why your songs cut out when using Pandora.

Internet Connection

One of the most common reasons your Pandora streaming is cutting out is the internet connection. Like most streaming services, Pandora requires a stable internet connection to stream smoothly. If the internet connection you are connecting to is not functioning optimally, the song on Pandora will buffer during its stream causing it to cut out.

To test your internet connection to make sure it is working correctly, use an internet speed test website. One free option is speedtest.net; this website will give you a rating of how well your internet is working. If your internet is working correctly, it would be time to explore different reasons your Pandora service might be cutting out.

High-Quality Audio Mode

Pandora offers an option on its mobile apps to choose between two audio quality options depending on the internet connection. If you select the 'high-quality audio,' you are warned of the possible skipping that will take place if the internet connection is slow.

Here is how to change the audio modes:

  1. Open the Pandora mobile app
  2. In the top-left corner of the app, click the three-lined symbol that opens up the main menu on Pandora
  3. Once the menu has been opened, tap on the 'Settings' option
  4. In the settings menu, tap the 'Advanced' category.
  5. In the Advanced menu, you will see the option of 'Higher quality audio,' with a box next to it that can be chosen depending on the internet connection.
  6. If you are suffering from songs cutting out on Pandora, make sure this box is not check marked. This could be leading to your songs being cut out due to buffering higher quality audio.

Anti-Virus Software

If you are using anti-virus software on your computer, you may be blocking Pandora from streaming correctly. Open your anti-virus software's menu and make sure that it is not blocking Pandora; this results in the streaming to not function properly. Click 'Always Allow' if the anti-virus software is blocking Pandora when you visit the website.

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Adam has been tirelessly trying to help customers find the best tips and tricks to get through phone trees and writing many guides for prickly customer service problems. He's been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Inside Edition and Bloomberg.
Why Do My Songs Keep Cutting Out on Pandora?

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