It’s tough out there for a streaming music service like Pandora, with competition from Spotify and Apple Music constantly putting on the pressure to get more subscribers. But there’s one thing Pandora’s rivals have that it doesn’t — an option for subscribers to listen to music offline. That may change in the future.
If you’re unfamiliar with Pandora, it works a bit differently than other streaming services, which allow users to make playlists and play specific songs on demand: Pandora lets users create certain “stations” based on a band, song, musical artist or genre, and then acts like a DJ, playing songs it thinks you might like. Users can skip songs or tell Pandora they don’t like it, thus, teaching it a lesson for next time.
But if you’re not online, there’s no way to take the tunes with you. Things could be changing, if comments from a Pandora executive speaking at the M1 Summit mobile conference in San Francisco yesterday are any indication, reports Forbes.
“It’s something we’re looking at,” said Lisa Sullivan-Cross, vice president of growth marketing at Pandora, in response to a question posed to several mobile companies on a panel. “It’s on our minds.”
When Forbes pressed further after the panel, Sullivan-Cross wouldn’t say much more, beyond acknowledging that Pandora knows customers want it, but, “I don’t know if or when.”
Offline mode might be an alluring idea, but Pandora would still have to face obstacles: there could be additional licensing fees from music labels, or it might not be so easy to actually implement. Subscribers might not even want the option, especially if they have to pay more for it. But it’s in the realm of possibility.
Pandora Eyes Offline Mode For Its Music Service [Forbes]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
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