Sprint Nextel adds Pandora streaming music service

Sprint Nextel Corp. added online streaming radio service Pandora to its lineup of music offerings, allowing users to create a customized “radio station” by entering their favorite song or artist.
Pandora’s Music Genome Project system provides a continuous stream of songs that have a similar sound and style. The application for Sprint Nextel is integrated with the online version of Pandora, according to the carrier, and up to 100 stations can be saved in a user’s account and listened to either online or via a mobile phone. The service is available free for 30 days, including online and mobile access, and then costs an extra $3 per month with a Power Vision data plan. The Pandora application is available for download via the Sprint Nextel deck.
“Pandora is a great way to break out of the same songs on your playlist and head some new music that you may have never found otherwise,” said Jeff Luther, Sprint Nextel’s director of entertainment wireless data.
The application displays song information, including title, artist and album, and users can scroll backwards to see the information for previously played tracks. Customers can also rate songs, thereby eliminating unwanted songs from the stream, and can pause or skip songs. Sprint Nextel customers can also bookmark a song in order to purchase it via Sprint Nextel’s music store, where full-track downloads are $1 each with a Power Vision data plan.
Pandora is currently available on several Sprint Nextel handsets: The LG Electronics Co. Ltd. Fusic, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s A900 and A920, and Sanyo Corp.’s 7500 and 8400.