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Spotify offers more personalization than Pandora does and it offers more plans but it comes at a higher price. There is a free Spotify plan that is similar to Pandora on mobile in that it plays a.

How Pandora and Spotify Work

When a user visits Pandora and creates a radio station based on, for example, his or her favorite artist, Pandora searches for similar artists and songs using the complex algorithms of the Music Genome Project, a music database that Pandora has patented. The Music Genome Project compiles information on songs, first categorizing each one by genre. A musician then analyzes every song for up to 30 minutes at a time, finding unique characteristics with which to further categorize the music by (e.g., types of instruments used, gender of lead vocalist, rhythm, tonality, etc.). Most songs have hundreds of attributes that help Pandora determine the similarities and differences between one song and another.

Pandora users can further customize their personal radio stations by giving a thumbs up or thumbs down to songs that are recommended to them. They can also share their stations with friends; however, linking to specific songs directly is impossible due to licensing restrictions.

Spotify is less about new music discovery than it is about replacing traditional music players, like iTunes or Windows Media Player, with streamable music. Spotify depends on a large catalogue of roughly 20 million songs to accomplish this—a sticking point in some countries when major record labels have not wanted to make deals with the company. In theory, users should be able to create an account on Spotify, search for any song or artist that they like, and begin streaming that music with Spotify's online player.

Playlists

On Pandora, radio stations are really just playlists (and vice versa) and come with the same limitations that all Pandora stations come with. Users can build their own stations/playlists based on their favorite music, use friends' shared playlists, or take advantage of one of many public Pandora stations that are based on genre. However, manually adding individual songs or albums is not supported.

Playlists on Spotify work in the same way that playlists in traditional media players work. Music is manually added or removed by the user. The only difference between Spotify's playlists and traditional media players' playlists is that Spotify's can be easily shared (and even co-edited). This has made Spotify a popular choice among those searching for a free or cheap and legal way to share their favorite artists and songs. It has even led to the creation of full websites (e.g., Playlists.net) dedicated to sharing and rating spotify playlists.

Pandora allows users to create up to 100 unique stations/playlists, while Spotify puts no limit on the number of playlists a user can create.

Phone Apps

Pandora has mobile phone apps for Android and iOS, as well as some limited support among Windows Mobile devices and Blackberries. On the iPhone, the Pandora app can only be installed using a U.S., Australian, or New Zealand iTunes account.

Spotify has apps available on a wide variety of mobile devices around the globe. Android, iOS, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile and Windows Phone are all supported.

Free vs Paid Subscriptions

Relatively few restrictions are placed on non-paying Pandora and Spotify members. The most jarring difference between free and paid memberships on both services is the presence of ads; paying members experience no audio ads on Pandora or Spotify.

Pandora's premium membership is known as Pandora One and costs $4.99 a month. Spotify's subscription is known as Spotify Premium; at $9.99 a month, it is more expensive than Pandora One.

As of 2014, students can subscribe to Spotify Premium for $4.99 a month provided they have a .edu email address from an accredited college or university in the U.S. that they can prove they are enrolled in. This reduced pricing is available to students for three years.

Restrictions on Free Membership

Both Pandora and Spotify put restrictions on non-paying users. The restrictions have changed numerous times over the years as both companies have tried out different pricing models and been affected by changing licensing fees or laws.

At present, Pandora's restrictions on its free members are as follows:

• Audio advertisements that last for 15 to 30 seconds periodically interrupt music. The number of ads served up in an hour varies depending on the operating device (i.e., whether listening to Pandora via computer, mobile, or car).

• Restrictions on how many songs can be skipped in a day. Six skips are allowed, per hour and per station; only 30 skips are permitted across all stations in a 24-hour period. Clicking the 'next' play button, selecting 'I'm tired of this track,' or downvoting (giving a thumbs down to) a song while it plays all count as a skip.

• Reduced audio quality. Music for free members plays at 64 kilobits per second in an AAC+ format. Built-in apps for televisions and other non-mobile devices, like Roku, may receive a slightly higher quality of 128 kbps.

• Timeouts. To avoid paying royalties on songs that users might not be listening to, Pandora periodically times out if the player has not been used in a while.

Spotify places similar restrictions on its free members:

• 15- to 30-second audio ads.

• Reduced audio quality. However, at 160 kbps in the Ogg format Spotify's free version offers a higher quality sound than Pandora does.

Premium Membership Benefits

Pandora One's benefits include the following:

• No ads.

• Higher audio quality of 192 kbps.

• Downloadable desktop application. Users are no longer limited to using Pandora on their mobile devices or in the browser.

• Custom skins for the web application.

• Fewer timeouts, allowing users to listen for longer periods of time without having to interact with the player.

Spotify Premium benefits include the following:

• No ads.

• Ability to download music for offline listening.

• Higher audio quality of 320 kbps for some songs.

• Use of Spotify Connect, which allows users to hook up other hardware to Spotify's mobile app.

Library Size

In 2011, Tim Westergren, a founder of Pandora, stated that the service had over 900,000 songs in its library catalogue at the time. More recent statistics are difficult to find, but it is likely Pandora has well over a million songs in its database as of 2014. Pandora has a good track record of finding and adding obscure independent artists, which aids users in discovering new music.

Because Spotify depends on having songs available on demand, the company has been more aggressive about making deals with major labels as well as well known independent labels. In 2012, its catalogue was said to hold about 20 million songs; however, the size of the catalogue varies by region due to licensing restrictions.

Social Features

Pandora and Spotify provide users with several ways to share music, but Spotify has more widespread, general sharing capabilities than Pandora does.

On Pandora, users can share links to stations via email, Facebook, or Twitter. Users can also share links to individual tracks, but the web address points to general song information—lyrics, purchase info, and a link to create a station based on the song, not listen to it directly (see an example).

With Spotify, users can share individual songs, full albums, and playlists. This is done via special links that target the Spotify application itself. This flexibility has led many third-party websites to adopt Spotify links as a method to legally share music. And as of 2014, Spotify has teamed up with Last.fm, an online music statistics and recommendation service, to try to compete with Pandora.

Parental Controls

For parents who are concerned about the music their children might listen to, Pandora is the better option, as it offers parental control options that will play censored versions of songs and exclude others entirely. Because every song is analyzed by real people, Pandora's parental controls are very reliable and do not simply rely on 'Parental Advisory' labels.

In contrast to Pandora's rigorous parental control system, Spotify offers no such capabilities. This means that explicit, uncensored music is available to anyone who signs up to Spotify.

Other Features

While Spotify's flexibility may make it more universal on the web in some respects, Pandora is found a lot more frequently beyond computers and mobile devices. Not only do many audio-video receives, media players, and HDTVs carry default support for Pandora, but so too do many modern automobiles that have digital radio systems.

Spotify can be found on or downloaded for many mobile devices and media players, but it is rarer on HDTVs and is not built in to any vehicle's digital radio systems by default. In some cases, Spotify Connect can be used to join Spotify with a device or set of speakers, which are controlled via the Spotify mobile app, but Connect requires a premium membership.

Availability and Popularity

Pandora has more users than Spotify does, but Spotify's service is available to more users around the world. Whereas Pandora only serves users in the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand, due to licensing issues, Spotify reaches dozens of countries and territories (click here for a full list). This has made Spotify popular outside of the U.S., but Americans remain loyal to Pandora according to statistics.

In 2014, Pandora reached 200 million users, with nearly 70 million active each month. By comparison, Spotify has about 40 million users as of 2014, 10 million of them premium subscribers.

Both Pandora and Spotify depend on banner advertisements, music-interrupting ads, and premium member subscriptions for funding. However, as of 2014, both companies operate at a net loss.

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Spotify allows a user to stream millions of songs at a click of a button, no purchase necessary. It is a legal alternative to music piracy and millions of people have now subscribed. However, Spotify is not the only program out there. There are many streaming music sites out there, the key is to figure out which one works best for you.

One popular option is Pandora Radio. You might be wondering, why you would want to choose Spotify over Pandora. There are numerous reasons, music catalogue and availability are two of the big ones. When you sit down and compare Spotify to Pandora, Spotify is the clear winner and the best choice for online music streaming.

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• Built-in music library for you to download the hottest songs.
• Download music from over 300 music sites by copying and pasting URL.
• Record music from unlimited music sharing sites and radio stations.
• Transfer music between iPhone, iPad, iPod, Android devices and iTunes/PC/Mac.

• Music Library

When you are choosing an online music streaming site one of the most important things to consider is the music catalogue. One of the advantages to online streaming is to have access to more music than is in your personal collection. You want to be able to access your favourites, but also explore new options.

A large music catalogue is one of Spotify’s biggest selling features. Spotify was created to be a legal alternative to music piracy and one of the cornerstones to Spotify’s success was making deals with the major record labels to access their catalogues. These deals give Spotify’s customers access to over 20 million songs.

Pandora on the other hand has a much smaller music catalogue. Pandora’s music library contains around 1 million songs, a fraction of what Spotify offers. Pandora does not have the same music agreements as Spotify, which means they do not have the access to the big labels the way Spotify does.

• World Wide Markets

Spotify is one of the fastest growing streaming music sites in the world. Spotify is currently available in over 50 countries and is aiming to increase that number. This availability means that if you are travelling, you have a better chance of being able to access Spotify wherever you happen to be.

In contrast, Pandora Radio is only currently available in 3 countries. Right now, you can only subscribe to Pandora if you live in New Zealand, Australia, or the United States. This leaves customer is Europe out of luck. Travelling with Pandora is hard because of these limitations.

• Price

For most people price is always a consideration. Most people do not have access to unlimited funds and want to stretch their dollar as far as possible. Both Spotify and Pandora offer free and paid subscriptions for you to choose from.

Spotify is one of the few streaming music sites that offers three tiers of membership options. In addition to its free service, Spotify offers an unlimited service for $4.99 a month and a premium service for $9.99. Both services are ad-free and allow you to access Spotify in countries where it is not yet available. The premium service also ads features like increased sound quality and offline access.

Pandora’s ad-free version costs $4 a month, however there are no special features. There is no offline mode, no increased sound quality. With the Pandora the monthly fee is just to access ad-free service. This means it is more comparable to Spotify Unlimited than Spotify Premium.

• Multi-Platform Access

In the era of smartphones and tablets, most people need to be able to access their music across multiple devices. You want to be able to access it on your computer, but also on your phone while you are on the go.

Free Pandora Vs Free Spotify

Spotify is available on most major platforms. There are desktop and mobile versions of Spotify and it is also available on separate streaming devices. Spotify mobile is available for iOs, Android and Windows Mobile and the desktop version is available for Windows, Apple and Linux operating systems. Whatever system you run, you should still be able to access Spotify and stream your favourite music.

Pandora is not as widely available as Spotify. Pandora is available on Android, BlackBerry and iOS and it can also be access via Xbox live and streaming devices such as Roku. However, there is no desktop version of Pandora. To access Pandora on your computer, you have to log-on to a web browser and keep the browser open in the background the entire time, which is not always convenient.

• Customization

The biggest difference between Spotify and Pandora Radio is the amount of control the user has over their listening experience. Spotify is a streaming program and it allows you to control what you are listening to, Pandora however markets themselves as a radio program and the listener as limited control over what music is played.

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With Spotify you can search for songs and save them to play-lists. You can create play-lists of your favourite music and just listen to those, if that is what you want. For those looking to expand their music horizons, Spotify will suggest songs based on your music history and will create playlists based on these suggestions.

This is where Pandora is particularly limited. With Pandora, you can pick a broad category of music, but that is it. There are no customized playlists and you can only skip over so many songs in an hour. Pandora does track the songs you’ve skipped and builds your playlist with that in mind, but you still have less control that you do with Spotify or similar programs.

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Spotify Offers a Better All-Around Experience

Pandora Radio is not a bad program, but compared to Spotify, it does not measure up. Spotify has a much larger music catalogue than Pandora. As well, Spotify offers all the features of Pandora Radio, but with wider availability and many extra features.

One of the biggest differences between Spotify and Pandora is customization. Spotify aims to give their listeners as personalized experience and achieves this by offering multiple levels of membership and customized playlists. Pandora provides music and lets you listen to it, Spotify lets you control your listening experience.