No Pandora Support on CarPlay, but Apple 'Continues to Be a Valued Partner'

[MacRumors]

Pandora confirmed today that Apple's newly released CarPlay feature does not include integration with Pandora's popular streaming music service, despite CarPlay offering support for other music services including iTunes Radio, Spotify, Beats Radio, Stitcher Radio for Podcasts, and iHeartRadio.

In a statement to MacRumors, Pandora said that although its service was not integrated into CarPlay, Apple "continues to be a valued partner." The company also suggests that it is continuing to explore opportunities to expand its presence within the car, hinting that it could be working towards integration with CarPlay in the future.

At this time, Pandora is not integrated with Apple CarPlay. As a first mover in the auto space, we continue to broaden our relationships with OEMs while also exploring other opportunities to expand our presence in the car. Apple has been and continues to be a valued partner.

It is unclear why Apple chose to exclude Pandora from CarPlay while supporting other competing services from companies like Beats Music and Spotify, but it may be due to the similarities between iTunes Radio and Pandora's own service. Both services are station-based, allowing users to create radio stations based on music genres, artists, and specific songs, which are then used to play similar music, making Pandora a direct competitor for iTunes Radio.

Pandora, in addition to mirroring iTunes Radio's functionality, is also ranked as the most popular music app in the App Store, sitting at the top of the free app charts in that category and the number 22 free app overall. The less popular services from Spotify and Beats Music work differently than Pandora and iTunes Radio, allowing users to search for specific songs, while iHeartRadio acts more like a traditional radio station.

In its statement, Pandora was quick to point out that although it is not included in CarPlay, its service is already integrated with more than 130 different vehicle models and present on several aftermarket stereo devices.

With CarPlay, iOS users with compatible cars will be able to utilize voice and touch commands, along with car controls, to access functions like Maps and various music apps, in addition to making phone calls and sending messages.

CarPlay will debut this week in vehicles from Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo. Apple has also made deals with other car companies for future integration, including BMW, Ford, Honda, Nissan, Kia, Toyota, and more.

Article Link: No Pandora Support on CarPlay, but Apple 'Continues to Be a Valued Partner'

 

[Tiger8]

Here's why: Because the only real competitor to Apple now is Pandora. Spotify offers a different model (for now).

 

[xero9]

Gave up on Pandora a while ago. Nothing lost.

Besides, there's nothing stopping it from being added later. Not like people will need to buy a new car if Pandora finally gets onboard.

 

[Rogifan]

Here's why: Because the only real competitor to Apple now is Pandora. Spotify offers a different model (for now).

But the Spotify model is better for a lot or people (me included). It's rare that I use iTunes Radio. Only if they have exclusives that you can't here anywhere else. Not sure why the business model matters.

 

[macUser2007]

Pandora has by far the best "station" algorithm out there. Far better than iRadio, which is at the bottom of the barrel, in my experience.

MOG is superior to Spotify (better catalog with overall higher quality encoding and less lame covers of popular hits).

Otherwise, CarPlay promises to be a great thing.

 

[Baklava]

[...]we continue to broaden our relationships with OEMs while also exploring other opportunities to expand our presence in the car.

In other words: we'll go with Samsung.

 

[LagunaSol]

MOG is superior to Spotify (better catalog with overall higher quality encoding and less lame covers of popular hits).

Isn't MOG shutting down next month due to the Beats acquisition?

My personal favorite is Slacker. I like the people-programmed station approach.

I've tried to like iTunes Radio, but it's still really buggy for me. I might hear the same song twice over the course of 5 songs. Songs I choose to block sometimes play again anyway. And some obviously-explicit songs somehow make it past the filter (a problem I also have with Slacker).

 

[MikeyMike01]

Pandora has by far the best "station" algorithm out there. Far better than iRadio, which is at the bottom of the barrel, in my experience.

Hmm, I have quite the opposite experience. With Pandora, I never discovered any new music I enjoyed. Ever. I was always given music I knew of or didn't like. With iTunes Radio, I've gotten about 6 new bands in a very limited amount of listening.

Maybe I'm weird.

 

[TallManNY]

I've moved on to Songza for music. The algorithm of pandora is impressive, but they ended up being a bit repetitive. It seemed like every fifth song was by Adel. I get more variety out of a curated music selection.

 

[QuarterSwede]

Pandora has by far the best "station" algorithm out there. Far better than iRadio, which is at the bottom of the barrel, in my experience.

MOG is superior to Spotify (better catalog with overall higher quality encoding and less lame covers of popular hits).

Otherwise, CarPlay promises to be a great thing.

I completely agree. iTunes Radio repeats a lot, plays music I've told it I don't like, and the quality of the content isn't nearly as high as Pandora's. For me I listen to a lot of singers/standards (get off my lawn!) and Disney (thank you children). iTunes Radio has even played a modern pop song in a singers/standards playlist. That would be like playing country in an R&B playlist. It was so wrong I can't figure out why the algorithm chose that (other than a conspiracy theory for revenue of course).

 

[britboyj]

I'll just keep using Bluetooth streaming and listen to whatever the hell I want.

 

[2457282]

I wonder when some stats will come out on how each of these services are working? I mean, now that apple has their iTunes Radio, has that impacted any of the other players mentioned in the article? Is Apple stealing users from any other services? Just wondering...

My wife likes spottily. I generally either use iTunes radio if i just want music playing in the background. Otherwise I am the old guy that actually still buys the music and stores it on his computer, makes playlists and listens to that. I know, I have 10,000 songs so my investment is significant (yes I paid for all of them).

 

[Rocketman]

This is Apple's sandbox. All developers and users would do well to know and adjust to it, by either going all in, or going elsewhere.

 

[KindredMAC]

Don't most cars have Pandora built-in nowadays in the infotainment centers???

 

[JayCee842]

There are better alternatives to Pandora.

 

[KylePowers]

Ever since Spotify let me shuffle artists, albums, and my playlists for free, I haven't touched Pandora or iTunes Radio.

 

[Skika]

Shots fired

 

[zorinlynx]

Spotify is far superior to Pandora. With Spotify you can play any track you want on demand, whereas Pandora only has the radio station model. Also, Spotify tends to play better songs when in radio mode then Pandora does.

That is my opinion, anyway. Ever since I've had Spotify, I have not renewed my Pandora one subscription.

 

[Nunyabinez]

But the Spotify model is better for a lot or people (me included). It's rare that I use iTunes Radio. Only if they have exclusives that you can't here anywhere else. Not sure why the business model matters.

People often assume that the way that they do things or in this case consume things is the way everyone does it.

I don't like any of the streaming services, because for me, an album is meant to be consumed as a whole item, i.e. each song is a chapter. I imagine the artist agonizing about the right order of the songs, etc.

I know that that is not true of all (even most) albums, but most of what I listen to is artists that make music that I like. I couldn't imagine buying one song by itself, because either I like the artist or I don't. And of course, some songs even by my favorite artists are obviously better than others.

So, even using iTunes radio is weird for me because I'm not a fan of radio in the first place. It's kind of jarring for me to bounce from one artist to another. I'm probably very much in the minority here.

So, does that make someone who likes pandora wrong? No. They just consume differently. So, more power to the spotify's and pandora's of the world. They must be working for some people.

 

[bpbatch]

••this post has been deleted by the author***

 

[goobot]

I wonder if jailbreaking can allow you to put any apps on CarPlay.

 

[jasonvp]

Like what, and why? Don't troll.

Slacker, by a long shot. It's far and a way more customizable than Pandora ever was. I switched from a paid Pandora subscription to a paid Slacker subscription several years ago and have never looked back.

At the time... a paid Pandora subscription only allowed 6 song skips per hour. Slacker allows me to skip however many I want. It had ads in it. Slacker has none. Its artist, album, and song customization was worlds worse than what Slacker allowed. For instance: I can literally page through a list of a specific artist's songs and tell Slacker to add songs 1-10 to my playlist, but never, ever play songs 11-20 (I'm making these numbers up). The only thing Pandora allowed at the time was a simple thumbs up/thumbs down.

Maybe things have changed with Pandora since then, but Slacker has me hooked.

 

[RenoG]

They must be working for some people.

Some? Try MILLIONS!

----------

Slacker, by a long shot. It's far and a way more customizable than Pandora ever was. I switched from a paid Pandora subscription to a paid Slacker subscription several years ago and have never looked back.

At the time... a paid Pandora subscription only allowed 6 song skips per hour. Slacker allows me to skip however many I want. It had ads in it. Slacker has none. Its artist, album, and song customization was worlds worse than what Slacker allowed. For instance: I can literally page through a list of a specific artist's songs and tell Slacker to add songs 1-10 to my playlist, but never, ever play songs 11-20 (I'm making these numbers up). The only thing Pandora allowed at the time was a simple thumbs up/thumbs down.

Maybe things have changed with Pandora since then, but Slacker has me hooked.

Nope, Pandora still functions the same.

 

[vartanarsen]

Whatever happened to buying a song and owning it forever. I dont like ghe spotify and pandora models. I just rather buy a song for .99 and own it.

 

[vexingv]

I don't think the issue at hand is whether Pandora is better than or worse than some of the other services being offered, it's the fact that it is being excluded. this move is troubling. again, another sign of Apple's enclosed "garden"/system. i can't imagine Google pulling a move like that with its Android in-car solution, which is the one that i'll be looking for in any future vehicles.

but then again, this is coming from someone who never got an iphone for similar reasons as above although i own several Apple devices (3rd gen iPod, Powerbook, ipad 4, and this rMBP that i'm typing on), i've been an Android nexus user since the original Nexus One (currently using a Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 2013)