Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Music
  3. News

Jam out to a ‘Hipster Brunch’ playlist with Pandora’s Featured Playlists

Lulu Chang
By

pandora featured playlists large
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Pandora is starting to look a whole lot like Spotify. Or rather, sound a whole lot like Spotify.

On Monday, October 30, the music streaming service announced its new Featured Playlists, which promise to “help you find the perfect jam to set the mood for any moment.” While Pandora has hung its hat on personalized stations informed by the Music Genome Project, it has struggled in recent years to compete with newer (but more flexible) services like Spotify and Apple Music. So now, it would appear that the company is hopping on the bandwagon, releasing “over 250 playlists” that will continue to expand in the coming weeks and months.


Recommended Videos

If you’re a Premium subscriber, you will be able to find these new playlists at the top of your “browse” section, and the playlist found at the very top of the list will correspond to your unique musical preferences. So whether you’re in the mood for Modern Yacht Rock (which promises a contemporary take on smooth rock grooves mixed with some electronic vibes) or Waterfalls (which will help you travel back in time with baggy overalls, nose rings, and acid wash), Pandora has something for you.

Related

Some of these Featured Playlists will also feature a “twinning radio station,” which is good news for folks who are not paying for Pandora (the playlists, you see, are only for Pandora Premium customers). Thanks to these new radio stations, you will be able to “enjoy the awesomeness whether you’re on free Pandora, Plus, or Premium.” Sure, you won’t necessarily have the exact same songs, but you will get the same general spirit — stations include Hipster Brunch for your early weekend party, and Turn Out The Lights to set the mood for a romantic evening.

Premium users will be able to save their favorite playlists to their libraries for easy access, whereas the rest of us will have to stick to Pandora’s classic station approach. But either way, it certainly seems as though we will be listening to new beats from Pandora. And just maybe, this new launch will help the company stay competitive in an increasingly crowded music streaming space.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Lulu Chang
Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
What is hi-res audio, and how can you experience it right now?
Dlyan Wireless Headphones

High-resolution audio, hi-res audio, or even HD audio -- whatever you decide to call it (for the record, the industry prefers "hi-res audio"), it's a catch-all term that describes digital audio that goes above and beyond the level of sound quality you can expect from a garden-variety MP3 file and even CDs. It was once strictly the domain of audiophiles, but now that major streaming music services like Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer, and Qobuz have embraced it, almost everyone can take advantage of what hi-res has to offer.

But what exactly is hi-res audio? What equipment do you need to listen to it? Where can you download or stream it? And does it actually sound better? We've got the answers.
What does the term 'hi-res audio' mean?

Read more
How to download music from Spotify for offline listening
How to download music and podcasts from Spotify: The downloads folder.

If you're a Spotify Premium user paying that premium Spotify fee, chances are you've taken at least some time curating playlists, liking songs, and using the platform's easy-to-use (and recently revamped) user interface to discover new and old music.

But sometimes all that music or your favorite podcasts aren't available if you find yourself without an internet connection to stream them from — like on a long plane ride or weekend camping trip in the sticks. That's where Spotify's offline listening feature comes in handy, allowing you to download playlists, albums, and podcasts through its desktop and mobile apps so you can still rock out while you're off the grid.

Read more
How to switch from Spotify to Apple Music
Spotify and Apple Music transfer on a smartphone.

Spotify is the world's most popular music streaming service for a reason. It has a massive catalog of music and podcasts, is full of cool music discovery and sharing features, and is really easy to use.
However, with its recent price increase and the fact that it still hasn't joined most of its peers in offering a hi-res audio quality option, you may be considering jumping ship for its closest competitor, Apple Music, which counts lossless hi-res tracks, mind-bending spatial audio, Dolby Atmos Music tracks, and a catalog that rivals Spotify's among the many attractive reasons to switch.

But there's one problem: you’ve spent a lot of time creating playlists and marking songs and albums as your favorites in Spotify. Is it worth the switch? Will all that hard work be lost in translation?

Read more