From the ashes of Rdio, Pandora Premium hopes to take your $10 in 2017
The best is yet to come for Pandora.
A year after it acquired Rdio, Pandora plans to enter the on-demand music market in early 2017 with Pandora Premium.
Using a number of features directly taken from, or inspired by, the sleek UI Rdio made famous, Pandora Premium lives alongside the company's existing streaming radio options, a free ad-supported service, and a $4.99 per month ad-free experience called Pandora Plus.
But unlike those cheaper options, Pandora Premium will compete directly with the likes of Spotify and Google Play Music, allowing for all-you-can-eat album and playlist consumption for $9.99 per month. It's not a new proposition, but Pandora hopes to convert a small portion of its existing free and paid base to Premium, largely on the back of its troves of user data; if you've been listening to Pandora for years, it knows what you like, and will cater customized playlists accordingly.
The question for most Americans, though, is whether Pandora's new offering is worth switching to in a market saturated by Spotify, Google Play Music, Apple Music, Napster and others.
While I still miss Rdio and its album-first user experience, it appears that Pandora Premium embodies more DNA of the latter than the former.
Do you plan to switch to Pandora Premium? Let us know!
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