If I could go back in time to middle school, and look at my fourth generation iPod Touch’s home screen I would see an application with a “P” icon. This application was Pandora. Pandora is a music streaming service that was popular during the early 2010s before Spotify became the industry king. While most Americans are using Spotify I am going to use the dated Pandora application for twenty-four hours. When I first started this challenge I was surprised how modern Pandora’s user interface looked, but after only spending a few minutes in the application I was reminded why I and so many others stopped using the app; Pandora is extremely restrictive. Unlike the free Spotify account I used to compare Pandora, Pandora does not allow its free users to create playlists, instead users are restricted to only playing “stations” created by paid users or by Pandora. In contrast, Spotify allows both its free and paid users to create playlists. Not only does Pandora hinder the creativity of its listeners, but the sound quality is absolutely terrible. I understand that it is a free music service but the audio sounded extremely tin like and flat. In comparison, Spotify’s free service sounded not terrible but not fantastic; I would say middle of the road. In the end, Pandora was great back in the day, however today it just doesn’t hold up, and I could not recommend it over Spotify.
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