Pandora is ratcheting up its human touch.
The music streaming service unveiled “featured playlists” Monday, its latest gambit at appealing to music listeners by promising to surface music they’ll like. The playlists, which are picked and refreshed by curators, are available to people who subscribe to Premium, Pandora’s $10-a-month competitor to Spotify and Apple Music that lets you listen to a catalog of tens of millions of songs on demand.
Among the 250 playlists are:
- “Hipster Brunch” to go with your avocado toast
- “Pumpkin Spice Latte” with mellow indie pop
- “Woke AF Comedy” featuring stand-up from the “smartest comics”
- “Tight Pants Dance Party” for when you want to “put on your tight pants and dance the day away” to upbeat indie
- “Somebody Done Me Wrong Songs” with country tunes about revenge
- “Rising Women in Country” with new female artists
- “Keep It Lit,” described as “the most ratchet hip hop to make you go HAM”
Pandora was a vanguard of music streaming with its digital version of radio, but with its format locked into rigid licensing rules, growth slowed when consumers began flocking to fresh competitors like Apple Music and Spotify that had more-flexible song-licensing deals. Earlier this year, Pandora launched Premium to compete directly with them. Monday’s playlists take aim at some of the curated discovery features of those rivals.
The new playlists are themed across genres, cultural moments, fitness, artists, new music, moods and other categories, the company said. A selection of them will also have companion radio stations based on the same concepts for people who listen to Pandora free with ads and those who pay for a cheaper, limited subscription called Plus. Its app’s “Browse” section will recommend the playlists and stations based on personal listening habits.
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