Pandora launches The Drop, a personalized new-release playlist | Social

Pandora on Monday introduced another personalized playlist, called The Drop, which collects new-release music suited to your tastes. The playlist, which is available for people who pay a $10-a-month Premium subscription, adds tunes to the top as they’re released, sort of like a news feed of fresh songs algorithmically picked for you.  

The popularity of streaming music has put vast catalogs of music at the fingertips of huge audiences. But that means streaming services offer basically the same library of tens of millions of songs, creating two big challenges for companies like Spotify, Apple Music and Pandora: how to set themselves apart and how to narrow down their huge libraries. Personalized playlists have emerged as a popular way services grapple with both. It means Pandora, Spotify and others are trying to figure out how to spin you a sliver of songs you like, without making it feel like work.

The Drop joins other personalized playlists that Pandora has introduced lately. In May, it launched individualized mixes called Soundtracks. 

On Monday, Pandora said its new-release playlist would be filled with the latest music from artists you’ve already shown you like, as well as new artists that the company thinks suit your tastes. The list is updated as frequently as every day. 

It said that this playlist is only available to Premium subscribers and trial users “for now.” In addition to its free tier, Pandora has a $10-a-month no-limits subscription and a $5-a-month option, called Pandora Plus, that unlocks some perks but not all. 

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