Spotify Radio set to take on Pandora

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Internet, Music

The Internet radio market got another shot of disruption today as Spotify announced its new Spotify Radio, a music-streaming app that will function just like a normal radio station, with the added ability to skip songs you don't like.

During this week's LeWeb tech conference in Paris, which was live-streamed online, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek took to the stage to announce the launch of the new app. Outlining the merits of Spotify Radio, Ek said, "It's kind of like Pandora, but with unlimited skipping and unlimited stations... We think people will love playing around it and we'd love to see what developers will do on top of that."

To get started, users simply click the new "Start Artist Radio" at the top of an artist page and the app will automatically create a radio station and continue to insert new music based on its "intelligent recommendation engine."

Ek's comparison to the popular music sharing service Pandora drew questions about how Spotify will differentiate itself. "I wouldn't even say that Pandora is a competitor, we want to be a music platform," he responded. "We want to make it easier for people to consume and share as much music as possible with their friends."

So far, Spotify remains relatively limited in terms of global footprint as it's only available in the U.S., France, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, the U.K., and Spain. But the Swedish company is one of the rare outliers in the way of non-U.S. companies that have found success in North America. Responding to a question regarding what Europe can do to offer more competitive options for American consumers, Ek said, "I don't think about geographies. I know that everything is different in different countries, but for me the idea is 5 percent and the execution is 95 percent."

Spotify Radio is set to launch to the public in the next few days, but preview versions are available via spotify.com.

The announcement comes several days after Spotify held its first U.S. press event and unveiled an app store for the service.

This article, written by Adario Strange, originally appeared on PCMag.com and is republished on Gear Live with the permission of Ziff Davis, Inc.