iTunes Radio vs. Pandora

iTunes Radio vs. Pandora
After updating your iPhone to the new iOS7, you may have noticed something new in your music app. iTunes Radio that is. Apple’s new innovation has been designed for you to create and listen to a free streaming radio on your phone. But how does this compare to already popular streaming radios like Pandora?
One of the most obvious differences of the two is that iTunes Radio is thought to be much more convenient with it being in your already existing music app. One feature is that when you hear a song you like you can buy it off iTunes right there and then, or you can save it to your wish list to buy later. You also have the option of telling the radio to play similar songs or to never play the song. Pandora still also has similar options like bookmarking the track, liking or disliking the song, and even its own ‘buy on iTunes’ button.
One not as official difference is that iTunes Radio tends to play lesser known artists and is better for discovering someone new. This is most likely due to the fact that iTunes Radio has around 27 million songs in its library, while Pandora has a significantly smaller library of only 1 million songs. However if you are one that likes to stick to what you already know and love, then iTunes radio’s vast selection might not be too impressive. But what Pandora is missing in song numbers it makes up in a whole different category.
Pandora gives you the option of not only listening to your favorite songs but also being able to listen to talk and sports radios. This is a feature that iTunes Radio doesn’t have at all.
The next point I’m going to bring up is one we all probably know all too well. Ads. Yes both have ads, but iTunes radio doesn’t have close to as many pesky ads as Pandora. You do have the option of buying the paid version of Pandora for an ad free experience, but let’s be honest we are pretty cheap when it comes to those kind of things. Though there may seem to be little significance in such a slight difference, it really does change how the listener looks at their streaming radios.
The actual creating of your own station is done pretty much the same way in both radios. With either one you can create a station based off a song, artist, or genre. As I said earlier with both you can let the radio know if you want it to play similar songs or not. The only real big difference is apple’s slider bar that dictates whether to play more popular songs or lesser known ones, which ties back into the whole discovering new music bonus of iTunes Radio.
Apple’s iTunes Radio is defiantly a great way to stream and listen to music on your iPhone. But the question still remains, is it better than Pandora? I personally like iTunes Radio more for its convenience and vast selection, but overall it’s hard to say which radio is the better. It all seems to come down to personal preference.