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  • Pandora's Premium Launches
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You might have heard about Pandora Premium a few months ago, but Pandora was slow to release the streaming music service. That day has come and Pandora Premium is now ready to contend with the likes of Spotify.

Even though Pandora has some tough competition with Spotify, there’s still a large gap to fill within the streaming sphere and Premium might be just the thing to fill it.

The Big Streaming Gap

If you use Spotify, you may have become frustrated with the popular service more than a few times. Even though Spotify does have 100 million users, that’s not a lot of users considering how many people are on the planet. The biggest frustration that people tend to find when using Spotify is that it’s difficult to navigate the service.

Unless you know what you are looking for, exactly, it’s hard to find songs. Spotify has hundreds of thousands of song, too, but you have to search for them. The other option is to browse, but even that option might not give you exactly what you’re looking for. This is a gap that Pandora plans to fill with its Premium service.

Better, Not More, Tracks

Pandora Premium will give users access to the same catalogue of songs as both Apple Music and Spotify. The difference is that Pandora plans to filter out all of those ‘fake’ songs - you know, the songs that are covers, might be someone singing karaoke, or not really the version of the song you’re looking for. Pandora representatives told press that this selective filtering is the reason why Premium might be more appealing.

Pandora has also given Premium a new and better look. One that makes navigation easier. Since difficulty navigating Spotify is one reason why more people don’t sign up for the streaming service, Pandora has chosen to focus on making finding a song simple. Cover artwork is prominent with the new Premium app, and you can easily see newly added tracks and songs.

Plus, jumping into music right after loading the app is easier than with Spotify, since it plays right into your My Music on your device.

Bye-Bye Playlists

Pandora’s Premium doesn’t have any playlists like you’d find on Spotify. Instead, Pandora relies on its music services. Keep in mind that Pandora began as a radio service, so that’s where the company has put most of its eggs. Instead of looking and finding a playlist, if you search through Premium you’ll be connected to radio streams, and those, in turn, will help you find other streams.

If you want a playlist for the gym or other place, you’ll need to create your own playlist based on the radio streams that you are connected to. Honestly, I wouldn’t be terribly sad to lose playlist options, since most of them aren’t fabulous anyway. Choosing your own playlist through radio streams seems like a more varied way to find music.

Pandora’s Premium service will launch this month for $10 per month (the same as Spotify) in North America. If you haven’t tried streaming music yet, this might be a good option for you.