Good news for music lovers with Amazon Echo smart speakers lying around their house and who also happen to be Pandora Premium subscribers. The latter can now be played on the former. All of Amazon’s Alexa-enabled devices like the Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Show will now be able to set Pandora as their default music streaming service and will be able to control their music through voice commands issued to Alexa. Take note that this is only applicable to Premium subscribers and not for free users.
Through Alexa voice commands, you will now be able to play specific songs, artists, albums, or playlists on your smart speaker without having to lift a finger. If you’ve run out of songs that you want Alexa and Pandora to play for you, you can just turn on AutoPlay and it will continue to add songs based on what you were previously listening to.
You can also ask Pandora to play Featured Playlists that have been curated by their music expert editors. And of course, one of the advantages of having a Premium subscription is that you can listen to all the music that you want, including their standard radio stations, without having ads interrupt you.
Pandora Premium was actually introduced just last 2017 and since then, it has become a steady source of revenue for the company. In their latest report, they shared that subscriptions now account for 30% of their business and has grown 49% year-over-year. Their ad business meanwhile has staled and only grown 6% in the same time period.
If you don’t have a Pandora Premium subscription yet but you have Alexa-enabled devices, you might want to try their 60-day free trial. If you’re happy with them, you can sign up for $9.99 per month. They have a cheaper option, the Pandora Plus at $4.99 but it doesn’t have Alexa support just yet.
