When we launched Saavn Music for Android, users on slower networks, especially users in India, reported streaming issues. In order to make the majority of Saavn mobile listeners happy, we rolled out a rapid fix: variable bit rates. With our original variable bit rate feature, Saavn Music automatically detected the speed of your network and selected an appropriate audio sampling rate to deliver your music (128 kbps for a high-speed network, and 16 kbps for a low-speed one).
Many of you told us that the quality of the downsampled rate was too low. You asked for higher quality and control over your bit rates — well now Saavn is giving it to you.
We’ve already flipped the switch so that the default downsampled bit rate is 32 kbps instead of 16 kbps – so you’ll see a significant improvement in quality on low-speed networks, without a sacrifice in streaming ability! We’ll also be expanding the variable bit rate feature in the next release of Saavn Music, which rolls out this month. Here’s what you’ll see in the newest version of the Android app:
- Option to turn off network auto-detect/bit rate auto-select
- Choice of four bit rates (128, 56, 32, or 16 kbps)
- Higher quality (32 kbps) default audio for slow networks
If you’re on a 2G (or EDGE) network, or on a busy 3G network, we recommend you keep auto-detect on. To all the users who wrote in and helped us make a better product, thank you. Keep it coming, and we’ll do the same!