5-10 years ago Pandora was the go to option for those after a unique radio experience. With Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube growing massively in the last five years, is Pandora still a viable options for music listeners?

What makes Pandora unique and can they survive in 2020?

Pandora has three pricing structures.

  • Free
  • Pandora Plus – $4.99 / month
  • Pandora Premium $9.99 / month

Free and premium options are very similar in features to most other streaming services. With premium offering on demand ad-free music, offline playback, playlists, podcasts, etc. I believe where Pandora can stand unique is in it’s ‘Plus’ tier.

Pandora Plus offers listeners a fantastic ad-free experience for users wanting to put on a station matching their specific tastes, not concerned for the pro features Premium offers, at half the price of most other competitors. Similar to Spotify’s $4.99 Unlimited model before being phased out.

Listeners seeking out a music streaming experience under the usual $9.99 price tag, should look into student/family offers from most stores.

Pandora’s algorithm driven stations should be commended for it’s ‘Add Variety’ feature (station seeds). This allows you to target the station to multiple artists or tracks to really give you the music you want. A stand out feature that is absent on most other services.

Click here for more on how to get your music on Pandora.