SiriusXM lets you customize music stations with Pandora
SiriusXM will finally let some subscribers create personalized music stations with Pandora, nearly six months after it acquired the streaming music company. The company today announced a slew of upgrades, including access to customized music stations powered by Pandora technology for All Access and Premier subscribers. Integrating Pandora tech into the SiriusXM app has been in the works for a while — and now it’s actually happening.
The new personalized stations are a mash-up of Pandora’s free service and SiriusXM; they’ll use Pandora’s Music Genome Project categorization system and SiriusXM’s music library. Subscribers can create the stations using the SiriusXM app by picking a song or artist to start with, and the station will learn your music preferences as you gives songs thumbs-up or thumbs-down ratings.
While SiriusXM isn’t extending the Pandora benefits to its Select subscribers, the company is throwing in some other perks for that subscription tier. Select subscribers will now have access to unlimited streaming on multiple devices as well as more than 100 curated “Xtra” music channels. All subscribers will also get access to an expanded preview of SiriusXM Video, that includes hundreds of in-studio performances and behind-the-scenes footage from musicians.
The roping-in of Pandora tech with SiriusXM may convince some subscribers of the former to convert. Pandora Premium is currently $9.99 per month, while SiriusXM Premier is $13 a month. Still, if you’re highly attached to Pandora’s on-demand music service and aren’t a fan of talk radio, there might not be a reason to jump ship.
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