Pandora Music is now available on Windows and Mac desktops. The new app features features that will make the experience more fluid and innovative. Will it compete and reach the popularity level of Apple Music and Spotify?
Pandora today launches a desktop app for Windows users after its debut of a native Mac app earlier this year. On Mac it offers a variety of features for desktop users, such as on-screen notifications, keyboard controls, a way to select listening modes and more. However, it did not include support for streaming podcasts.
Like its Mac counterpart, the Pandora app for Windows can be used by both free users and paid subscribers.
Pandora and Pandora Plus: all the features available
Free users will have access to Pandora-supported advertising stations, while Pandora Plus subscribers will receive ad-free stations, unlimited jumps, custom stations and up to four offline stations. Pandora Premium subscribers, meanwhile, get the same, as well as the ability to create and share playlists, play albums and songs on demand and take advantage of unlimited offline listening.
Like the Mac app, the Windows version supports keyboard controls to perform operations such as playback, pause, playback, random playback, thumb up and down, etc. And it supports the Pandora Mode feature, which allows you to refine customized stations by asking Pandora to focus more on certain types of songs, such as those that are most listened to by the masses or for emerging artists.
Desktop users often prefer to use a native app instead of leaving a service open in a browser tab as it allows them a more fluid and integrated experience. That said, the Mac version didn't have the best Apple user reviews.
However, the launch of on native desktop apps helps the SiriusXM-owned company compete better with competitors like Apple Music and Spotify, which have both offered desktop applications for a long time. In the case of Apple, it was actually integrated so much into iTunes that the company decided to split it into parts with the next version of macOS. Pandora does not have the same problem, as it does not include a user library or a marketplace.
The app runs on Windows 10. (Pandora also supports Xbox streaming via the Microsoft Store app.)
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