Fair point. You're obviously more of an audiophile than I am, but in my circles (who stream at 96kbps), I'm certainly more of an audiophile than they are.
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Spotify: Bluetooth vs Tesla built in app
- Thread starter Tezla1
- Start date
Is this still true 18 months later?
I've already got a couple different music streaming subscriptions (Tidal, Qobuz, etc), and was thinking about adding spotify, and one of the biggest reasons was for the integration with my car (I'm tired of pulling out my phone; I have some FLAC files on a USB but that's obviously a limited library, and navigation in the Tesla isn't speedy and there's limited (no?) metadata, etc).... but 96 kbps bitrate is bad... like 2003, wild-wild-west internet KaZaA bad... that'd probably be a deal-breaker for me and my interest in picking up yet another music service.
corndog
Member
Still sounds like 96 to me. I'll subscribe to Tesla Premium Connectivity the day they bump it up to at least 256kbps. Until then, it's cheaper and better for me to use bluetooth.
What benefit is there to subscribing to the Tesla Premium Connectivity? I read something about dynamic traffic routing updates, but doesn't Google Maps already do that?
I wish Tesla would accept that the phone already owns the internet connectivity. Embrace this by offering Apple Play/Android standard and move on.
I wish Tesla would accept that the phone already owns the internet connectivity. Embrace this by offering Apple Play/Android standard and move on.
DeltaOne
Member
My first month free of Premium Connectivity expires in about two weeks. I'm still debating whether to subscribe or not.
I've read that you lose two things when you drop Premium Connectivity. #1) live traffic visualization and 2) satellite view.
The live traffic visualization is poorly thought out. Very thin lines and confusing colors. Which color denotes heavy traffic? Red or pink? (I think it's pink...should be red!). And in the two weeks I've owned this car I've seen that it's showing heavy traffic at my location and when I look around the traffic seems fine.
Would I miss satellite view? Probably not. So, I'm leaning towards not subscribing.
I’d add:
3) Entertainment (Netflix, YouTube, etc) while parked over LTE - easily overcome with hotspot or WiFi if available.
4) Music streaming over LTE
5) Browser over LTE
DeltaOne
Member
Ah, right. I guess I didn't think of those since I'd be more likely to use my smartphone for those types of activities.
DeltaOne
Member
Wait...just dawned on me that dropping premium connectivity would also mean the loss of Tune In?
Before owning a Tesla I'd never heard of Tune In but I've used it in the car a few times to listen to CNN or MSNBC. I might keep premium connectivity if it means keeping Tune In.
Any chance Tesla would add SiriusXM to our cars? Is the hardware on the car for that? We have a SiriusXM news only package on our other car but I'm not sure what the monthly charge is. It might cost more than premium connectivity.
Knightshade
Well-Known Member
It would mean loss of all car-based streaming unless you connect the car to wifi.
Nope.
They could add a local app to stream online, but I've not heard any talk about them planning to do so.
I'm paying for the premium connectivity and I'm beginning to wonder why. The only thing I actually use it for is live traffic. Where I live it isn't very useful because traffic is always jammed everywhere. No need to see that on a screen. In my first week of owning the car I took a joy ride around Brooklyn and Queens and there was no joy at all.
DeltaOne? Do you work for Delta? Nothing like flying in the front of the plane. And my joy ride included drive-bys of the new LGA and past JFK.
DeltaOne? Do you work for Delta? Nothing like flying in the front of the plane. And my joy ride included drive-bys of the new LGA and past JFK.
DeltaOne
Member
Nah. It was a code name for someone in a book I read long ago. Kinda stuck in my mind.
Are you sure that the iPhone adapts it to AAC at peak rate? I had assumed it would down rate it to the standard Bluetooth audio codec. Have you any sources to back this up? I’m keen to move from Apple Music to Spotify
corndog
Member
Has anyone else noticed that in-car Spotify sounds better than it used to? Green mentioned it on twitter a couple weeks ago, so I had a listen myself, and I agree. When comparing against my bluetooth stream, I find it very hard to tell the difference now. I think Tesla have finally uncorked the Spotify Connect bitrate to allow the full 320kbps. First time I heard it was with 2021.36; the same update where they updated the immersive sound. I actually never use immersive sound, so it's not that playing tricks on me. I'm also using my phone hotspot as a wifi source for the car. I'm not sure if that matters though. I'm not paying Tesla PC, so I can't check if the quality changes when running on LTE.
corndog
Member
If I knew that, I wouldn't be asking haha! I think someone (maybe in this thread) estimated it based on wifi usage, but I don't think anyone has managed a direct measurement.
corndog
Member
Our cars use Spotify Connect, which comes from Spotify at 320kbps (Spotify Connect Stream Rate). As of 2021.36 (or maybe earlier) it appears that Tesla are now allowing that full bitrate in the cars. This was first noticed by Green on twitter ( ). The difference between in-car Spotify and bluetooth used to be very obvious. BT was vastly better. Now I can't really tell the difference. I've been doing a bunch of comparisons the last couple of weeks; BT vs in-car wifi vs in-car LTE vs USB 320kbps. I'm now convinced that we're getting 320kbps Spotify via LTE.
If you have an iPhone do this:
Turn on Hotspot.
Connect the car to the hotspot. It isn't always so easy with the encryption choices but I think you leave it off and then it'll ask for the password.
Have Spotify up and running in the car with a song you want to play, a longer one is better for precision. Note the length but don't press play just yet.
Go to the cellular menu and look at hotspot usage at the bottom of that screen, there will be a selection for that. The biggest problem will be if the number is in GB and not MB. You don't get any precision if it is in GB.
Play the song on Spotify
Check the usage again and subtract the original number to get usage for that song.
Divide that by the song length in seconds.
That'll give you a ballpark usage number. It could be more or less, depending on how much other stuff the car is using the wifi for, but figure it'll either be around 300 or around 100 if the low bitrate spotify plays. The problem with this method is that this will be the bitrate over Wifi, and the LTE bitrate could be different. With Tidal that is certainly the case, but we have no way of measuring the LTE bitrate without some kind of monitor hack.
If you have an Android phone there is likely some similar method. I just don't have one to check.
Turn on Hotspot.
Connect the car to the hotspot. It isn't always so easy with the encryption choices but I think you leave it off and then it'll ask for the password.
Have Spotify up and running in the car with a song you want to play, a longer one is better for precision. Note the length but don't press play just yet.
Go to the cellular menu and look at hotspot usage at the bottom of that screen, there will be a selection for that. The biggest problem will be if the number is in GB and not MB. You don't get any precision if it is in GB.
Play the song on Spotify
Check the usage again and subtract the original number to get usage for that song.
Divide that by the song length in seconds.
That'll give you a ballpark usage number. It could be more or less, depending on how much other stuff the car is using the wifi for, but figure it'll either be around 300 or around 100 if the low bitrate spotify plays. The problem with this method is that this will be the bitrate over Wifi, and the LTE bitrate could be different. With Tidal that is certainly the case, but we have no way of measuring the LTE bitrate without some kind of monitor hack.
If you have an Android phone there is likely some similar method. I just don't have one to check.
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