Pandora vs Spotify Prompted Playlists

Pandora is a music and podcast listening service built around personalized stations and listening recommendations. Its Music Genome Project and Podcast Genome Project power personalization; Pandora says its musician-analysts characterize tracks using details such as melody, harmony, instrumentation, rhythm, vocals and lyrics. Listeners can create up to 100 unique stations. Pandora is available on the web and mobile apps, as well as desktop apps and connected devices; it says it integrates with more than 2,000 connected products. The free plan offers personalized stations and podcasts, with some features, including unlimited skips, unlocked by viewing an ad. Pandora Premium costs $10.99 a month when purchased through its website and includes ad-free listening, on-demand songs, albums and podcasts, personalized playlists and stations, unlimited offline listening and skips. Offline listening is supported, but lossless audio is not. Pandora also offers a GraphQL API covering a catalog of over 30 million tracks, but access is limited to developers invited by an approved partner representative. Pandora says its audio and subscription services are intended for U.S. residents and may be blocked outside the country.

Spotify Prompted Playlists lets Premium listeners describe the audio they want and set rules for a personalized playlist. Prompts can refer to moods, memories, scenarios, genres, activities, artists, lyrics, instruments, or TV shows. Spotify curates results using listening patterns and current information about music and podcasts. Listeners can set daily or weekly refreshes, adjust tracks, edit prompts, regenerate playlists, and show or hide notes about why items fit. The feature can also create podcast playlists with recommendations informed by listening history and current trends. It is a mobile Premium feature, currently available only in English, and remains in beta with usage limits that also apply to scheduled updates. Free users can listen to shared playlists but cannot personalize them or reuse their prompts. Spotify has announced audiobook Prompted Playlists in beta for eligible Premium users in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Sweden. The listed plans include Premium Student at $6.99 a month for eligible students; Premium Individual is $12.99 a month.