Pandora Will Launch New On-Demand Music Streaming Service as Soon as Next Month
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Long the top dog of internet radio, Pandora has now announced its plans to offer on-demand streaming services to its listeners. The company, which has long resisted jumping on the streaming bandwagon, will reportedly launch an on-demand streaming tier for $10 a month — a price familiar to users of Spotify or Apple Music. The company is reportedly in the process of signing deals with various major record labels for the right to offer on-demand streaming, according to the Wall Street Journal. And the new streaming service could launch as early as next month.
As of right now, Pandora’s current service focuses on mostly free, ad-supported internet radio streaming — which doesn’t allow users to pick specific tracks or artists. Instead, the service plays songs based on similarities to an artist or genre. Additionally, the company is planning on tweaking their $5-a-month, ad-free base tier by adding features such as offline listening and additional song skips, TechCrunch reported.
Pandora has struggled to keep up with services like Spotify and Apple Music in the past few years — and has been stagnant in its growth in the face of fierce competition. But while the company has managed to keep its costs low by not offering on-demand streaming, Pandora has failed to make a profit since 2011. Until now, Pandora has not had to actively seek out record deals, since its radio content is only available in countries where internet radio licensing is an easier process, AppleInsider reported. And while it maintains 80 million active listeners, only around 4 million of those are actually paying customers. Spotify, in comparison, has about 30 million paying users. Apple Music has around 11 million, and Tidal lags behind with 3 million.
Some of Pandora’s other efforts to become profitable include a recent integration with Ticketfly to sell live concert tickets to listeners.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]
