Pandora’s upcoming Spotify killer has one major problem

By Parker Hall Published September 13, 2016

pandora autoplay premium thumbprint radio — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Pandora is gearing up for the launch of it’s $10-per-month on-demand streaming option, announcing today that it had secured licensing deals with Universal Music, Sony Music, indie record label trade association Merlin, and more than 30 other labels and distributors.

But there is still a big hole in the internet radio company’s play for world domination: Warner Music Group, one of the three largest record labels in the world, has yet to ink a licensing deal. And while, according to Billboard, the two companies are close to reaching an agreement, Warner could also use the fact that it is the last big hold-up to get better terms.

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Pandora has been working to create its own on-demand streaming service for some time now, with CEO Tim Westergren reportedly looking to beat Amazon’s upcoming on-demand streaming service to market.

The press release from Pandora seemed premature to many industry insiders, seeing as it is largely accepted that no fully featured service would be popular without Warner Music on board. The label’s list of major artists is massive, and includes releases from international superstars such as Coldplay, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ed Sheeran, Metallica, and many more.

Still, the streaming radio king will almost certainly work out a licensing agreement with Warner eventually; The label is by no means anti-streaming, with services like Apple Music, Spotify, and Soundcloud currently licensing Warner-owned material.

When it finally secures its Warner deal, Pandora is expected to launch two subscription options. The first will be an expanded version of its current $5-per-month option called Pandora One, which will continue to remove ads and up the number of songs that users can skip to six songs per hour, as well as adding the ability to store playlists online. The second will be its $10-per-month on-demand option.

The on-demand service will be an entirely new offering from the company, but will probably resemble current market offerings from Apple Music, Tidal, and Spotify.

Pandora currently boasts 78 million users, and is looking to convert a significant portion of them to on-demand streaming when it launches its new service. With a conversion rate of just 10 percent, Pandora would instantly become the third-largest on-demand streaming service on earth.

The release date for the upcoming service has yet to be announced.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Parker Hall is a writer and musician from Portland, OR. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin…

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Spotify adds new, cheaper Basic plan without the audiobooks

A close-up of the Spotify app icon.

Spotify on Friday announced that it's adding a new Basic tier to its streaming music plans that costs $11 per month and that removes the monthly audiobook listening time.

The new Spotify Basic plan, which is available only to U.S. subscribers at the moment, strips away access to the 15 hours a month of audiobooks and gives subscribers access to just music and podcasts, which users uninterested in audiobooks might appreciate.

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What is Spotify? Music, pricing, and features explained

Spotify app library screen.

Spotify is the first name that comes to mind when you think of music streaming services. Love it or hate it, Spotify is currently the most popular music-streaming service, boasting 615 million users and more than 239 million subscribers, putting it ahead of competitors like Apple Music. But what exactly is Spotify, and how does it really work? We're answering all your questions with this deep dive into what you can expect from Spotify.
What is Spotify?

If you spend even a little time online, you've probably heard of Spotify. It's a popular free and paid music-streaming service founded in Stockholm in 2006 by Swedish friends Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. Fun fact: the name happened by fluke when the partners were shouting names back and forth from different rooms in Ek's Stockholm flat, and Ek misheard one of Lorentzon's suggestions as "Spotify." They later backtracked the meaning as a combination of spot and identify, and there you have it.
Spotify today is a behemoth of a streaming service that also offers access to podcasts, videos, and highly tailored playlists driven by your unique usage. With several plan tiers to choose from, Spotify's free version lets you listen to unlimited music, podcasts, and even videos, so you can explore your taste without shelling out a thing, but you do have to endure ads and limited functionality (more on that below). It does offer much more robust paid options (more below, too), but the free version is more than enough for the casual listener.
Spotify is also quite device-versatile, so you can use it on your smartphone, tablet, computer, laptop, TV, smartwatch, gaming console, and even in your car. You get the expected, intuitive controls like play/pause, next/previous, loop a song/playlist, and save favorites. But that's not all. There's a lot that Spotify offers, so let's break down what you can look forward to.
Spotify features: music, podcasts, audiobooks, and more

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How much is Spotify Premium, and can you get a deal?

An iPhone with the Search section of the Spotify app on it.

Spotify gives you access to an incredible amount of music (more than 100 million songs), podcasts (6 million) and audiobooks (350,000) -- so it's no wonder the music streaming service has become culturally ubiquitous, with well over 239 million subscribers as of 2024. That's more than both Apple Music and Amazon Music.

If you want to get the best of Spotify, you'll want to sign up for a Premium account that, as of June 2024, for new subscribers, costs $12 a month for an individual membership. There are also subscription options for two people (Spotify Premium Duo, $17 a month), families (Spotify Premium Family, $20 a month), and students (Spotify Premium Student, $6 a month).