While listening to Prince’s “When Doves Cry,” Pandora listed Michael and Janet Jackson, Sheila E., Marvin Gaye, and Earth Wind and Fire as similar artists, making it a cinch to find more music to keep our groove going. Pandora has a solid recommendation feature, courtesy of its Music Genome Project foundation, that gives you bullets of artists similar to what you’re listening to. This is typical of what you'd find in competing streaming music services. For instance, our "Prince" search caused Pandora to display results that included albums, songs, an artist page, and a Prince-based station. You begin your musical journey by browsing Pandora's many categories, or typing the name of an artist or song into the search box. Pandora also offers discounted Premium plans for students ($4.99 per month), active military members and vets ($7.99 per month), and families ($14.99 per month, for six people). LiveXLive, an Editors' Choice pick, has a similar, annoying limitation. The fact that the playlist creation feature is locked behind Pandora's priciest tier is highly disappointing. Pandora's highest-level plan, Premium, costs $9.99 per month, and adds playlist creation and sharing to Pandora Plus' feature set. The $4.99-per-month Pandora Plus is a more traditional plan that builds on the free tier by adding ad-free personalized stations, unlimited skips, and offline listening. This is done with a simple mouse click, or button prompt on phone apps, but it feels unnecessarily obtuse considering most other services just play the ad by default rather than asking you about it first. In order to hear Wu-Tang Clan’s Top Songs playlist, we had to redeem a temporary Premium account and watch a video ad to enjoy some uninterrupted music. With that said, Pandora makes you jump through a few hoops before you can enjoy your free music. Pandora is similar to Spotify, a PCMag Editors' Choice pick, in that regard. Free account holders enjoy the expected ad-supported personalized stations, plus podcasts and the ability to play music on demand. Pandora has free and premium service levels, so you can explore the music whether or not you want to sign up for a subscription. These offerings may not truly challenge the features from top services, such as LiveXLive, Spotify, Tidal, or even its SiriusXM Internet Radio parent company, but Pandora is a strong app that has a presence on numerous devices. Many rival apps have since caught up and surpassed Pandora in terms of features, but the service contains playlists, podcasts, album commentary, and artist tour info that help it stay relevant. Originally famous for its recommendation engine, the Music Genome Project, it led the vanguard for internet radio in the mid-to-late 2000s. Pandora is one of the oldest and most recognizable names in the streaming music category, and it continues to grow and evolve.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |