Spotify Brings Pandora-Like Stations App to the US After Extended Testing in Australia

[MacRumors]

Spotify has brought its experimental Stations app to the U.S. after over a year of testing iOS and Android versions exclusively in Australia.

Designed to let Spotify account holders stream free music from curated, radio-like stations, the app has similarities with Pandora, offering personalized stations or playlists based on the user's Spotify history.

Music starts playing as soon as the app is launched, and then users can choose from a list of several preset stations. Like in Spotify proper, premium subscribers get unlimited skips and ad-free listening, while non-paying listeners can use the free ad-supported version which comes with limited skips.

The success of the Stations app in Australia hasn't been disclosed, but presumably it's done well enough for Spotify to extend testing to the U.S. where the majority of its subscribers reside.

"At Spotify, we routinely conduct a number of experiments to create better listening experiences for our users," a Spotify spokesperson told Engadget. "Some of those tests end up paving the way for our broader user experience and others serve only as an important learning. Spotify Stations is one of those tests."

Aside from the personalized content, the Stations app also serves popular playlists from the main Spotify platform, including Discover Weekly, Favorites, and Release Radar.

Stations is a free download for iPhone and iPad available from the App Store. [Direct Link]

Article Link: Spotify Brings Pandora-Like Stations App to the US After Extended Testing in Australia

 

[FontGeek]

This is exactly the type of article that I was looking forward to the day after WWDC.

In all honesty though, it does seem to be a news-worthy update. Thank you MacRumors for your ongoing reporting!

 

[NutFlush920]

Could finally be a way to ditch SiriusXM. I just like picking a station and letting whatever is playing play.

 

[TVGenius]

So, what Slacker (now LiveXLive) has been doing since 2008... OK, cool.

 

[BWhaler]

Serious question: how is this different than what they do today?

 

[OVERTASK]

Serious question: how is this different than what they do today?

Just played around with stations for a bit

You can add similar artists into stations, but it will auto suggest similar artists, you can choose up to 20. There is also an option to play similar artists in addition to those chosen or not.

All in all, not different from the underlying tech stand-point, but the UI/UX is more focused towards continuous discovery, mixing and matching, normal Spotify is quite restrictive in that regard. While I think it is a step in the right direction, the algos anecdotally seem less accurate in selections compared to others.

 

[iBreatheApple]

Could finally be a way to ditch SiriusXM. I just like picking a station and letting whatever is playing play.

I’m confused as to how this is different from the current create-station-from-song feature, except that it’s created from a theme or genre rather than a specific song or album.

 

[nburwell]

I'm not sure that another app was needed for this. I played around with the app and like some others mentioned, I'm still not sure I understand what I can't do in the main Spotify app that I can do in the Stations app. Just seems like a overlap to me.

 

[achappy]

No CarPlay support. Deleted.