MB500

Guys,

I keep hearing that people have Pandora radio on their Comand along with BT Audio Streaming. My 2011 has BT Audio Streaming which works great by the way, but I cannot find Pandora radio. I have Sirius radio, but it's worthless to me. Could someone please explain if I need to get software update for my Comand to get Pandora?

I know that I can use my smartphone and stream Pandora via BT but I was curious if there was a cleaner solution.

Thank you.

ttoE550

Get the Pandora app for your phone. Select BT audio streaming in Comand. Start up the Pandora app. When it starts, you should hear it over the car speakers.

In BT streaming, think of the car as really big BT headphones for your phone.

In general, BT audio streaming works from whatever device you have paired, such as your phone. You can use other free apps, such as ooTunes with hundreds of radio stations, Rhapsody, etc. Or you can use iTunes on your phone. All of them work the same way.

ttoE550

Rereading your original email, I thought of a couple more things that might help.

You say you are already using BT audio. My guess is that you are currently using iTunes or whatever music management system you have for music stored on the phone. For my iPhone, iTunes starts automatically in most cases if I do not open some other app. For my phone, all I have to do is open Pandora or Rhapsody and they will "override" iTunes and play on the car speakers.

This is all driven by apps on the phone. You will not see these apps in Comand, unfortunately. You can skip and replay a song from Comand, but that's about it.

If you are unfamiliar with Pandora: When you open it, you will need to start a channel. You do this by specifying a song or artist you like. Subsequent songs will be by different artists selected by Pandora. You can like or dislike the song. The more likes and dislikes you give, the closer it will match to your tastes.

For instance I like Paul Gilbert instrumental guitar. I hate his singing. I also dislike Steve Vai. So I liked all the guitar instrumentals and disliked songs with singing or Steve Vai. I can listen to it all day without hearing a song I don't like.

MB500

Thank you for clarifying. So, if I understood you correctly, Pandora is not a part of COMAND per se but rather an app on a smartphone that people BT stream to their Comand. I will give it a shot tonight.

fourcircle

I too have a 2011 E350 with Bluetooth, but I'm not familiar with how to get it to stream my iphone's pandora. Is this an option I missed or is a way to set it up? Thanks for your help.

ttoE550

No offense, but as asked your question is essentially the same as the OP's, and my replies to the OP should give you all you need. If not please be specific, and I will try to help.

ttoE550

Did it work?

fourcircle

ttoE550, no offense taken, as I know everyone is here to help. I should be more clear... I believe my command has bluetooth because I can send and receive calls over my car's stereo system. However, I do not know how to setup the bluetooth system in such a way as to be able to listen to my pandora app running on my iphone.

I have a 2011 E350 with P1 pkg. Was bluetooth streaming of music an added option or is there a simple fix? Thanks.

ttoE550

Ok, I kinda figured I wasn't seeing the whole question. So, AFAIK, every w212 can make and receive calls via Bluetooth. However, only some can do Bluetooth audio streaming. It seems to have changed somewhere in the 2011 model year, but some 2010s (mine included) have gotten it because of COMAND software upgrades.

If you have BT audio streaming, it will show up as an option in your audio sources - CD, Satellite, radio, etc. If that is an option, simply select it and then play Pandora on your iPhone. The car will pick it up automatically if the iPhone is paired to the car.

If you don't have the option, you will need to get the COMAND update. It seems that most get this update for warranty reasons or it can be bought (personally, I would pay the $250 quote someone else posted - the Pandora/Rhapsody combo beats any other audio source IMO). There are also third party add-ons to the iPod interface, but do your homework. It seems that MB's iPod interface is not Apple-compliant, so some add-ons will not work.