Pandora’s Premium Service Goes Live on Amazon’s Echo Speakers

Pandora is bringing its paid premium tier to Amazon’s Echo speakers. The Oakland, Calif.-based music service announced Monday that owners of Amazon’s Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Show devices are now able to access the premium service with voice commands.This includes the ability to request single songs, whole albums and custom playlists on demand. Paying Pandora Premium subscribers also get to listen to the service’s personalized radio stations without any ad breaks.Pandora first launched Pandora Premium as a Spotify competitor in early 2017. And while the company initially saw slow growth for the paid tier, it has since become a meaningful contributor to Pandora’s business. Earlier this month, Pandora disclosed that paid subscriptions now account for close to 30 percent of its revenue.What’s more, paid subscriptions are seeing a lot more growth than Pandora’s ad business. For its most recent quarter, Pandora grew its subscription business 49 percent year-over-year. The company’s ad business only grew 6 percent over the same time span.