REVIEW: Sound quality, service shine in Pandora’s mobile application

Editor’s Note: Welcome to Yay or Nay, a feature for RCR Wireless News’ new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week we’ll review a new wireless application or service from the user’s point of view, with the goal of highlighting what works and what doesn’t in the mobile content industry. If you wish to submit your application or service for review, please contact us at rcrwebhelp@crain.com.
Service: Pandora’s mobile application
Running On: Motorola Razr and LG’s Fusic with Sprint Nextel service
Yay: Simple, easy-to-understand application with surprisingly good sound quality
Nay: Won’t display song or artist information on phone’s external screen, there’s no way to purchase tunes, and the service eats up battery life
We Say: Internet radio has officially arrived on the mobile scene with Pandora’s application, a slick mobile version of the popular online service. Despite a few drawbacks, the application stands as another notable addition to the mobile music scene.
Pandora’s online service is a great way for music lovers to discover new music. The site is extremely easy to navigate, and getting started requires only the name of a favorite song or artist. Pandora’s service essentially creates a streaming radio station based on a song or musician by playing tunes that contain related attributes.
Earlier this year, Pandora took its service mobile with the downloadable Pandora application recently made available through Sprint Nextel.
The mobile application can tie into Pandora’s online offering, allowing existing Pandora users to log in to access their favored radio stations. But the application also works on a stand-alone basis, requiring new users to create a user name and password.
Once a user logs on, getting started is simple and quick: just type in the name of a favored song or artist, and the application will immediately begin streaming a radio station based on that selection. The sound quality of the tunes is surprisingly good-on par with Pandora’s online service-and I found the song selection to be pretty accurate to my tastes. Thankfully, skipping unwanted songs is as easy as clicking the “thumbs down” button.
However, on using the service over the course of a number of days I began to wish for a few changes. For example, the only way to discover the name of a particular song or artist was to open the phone and check the main screen; the outer screen on the Razr and Fusic displayed only the fact that an “application is running.” A more elegant solution to the problem would be for the service to automatically read the name of the song and artist before playing the tune, so that I wouldn’t have to check the phone’s screen at all.
Another missing feature is the ability to purchase music, an element that is available on Pandora’s online service. Although Sprint Nextel sells millions of full-track tunes through its Sprint Music Store service, the offering is not integrated into Pandora’s application.
Finally, users will have to keep an eye on their phones while using Pandora; the application chews into battery life more ferociously than voice calling does.
Despite the drawbacks, Pandora stands as a notable addition to the mobile music market. However, it’s unclear whether Pandora’s mobile service will be affected by the ongoing negotiations between online streaming radio services like Pandora and record companies. The negotiations may well result in higher licensing fees for online radio stations, costs that may trickle down to end users.
Pandora’s mobile application is available from Sprint Nextel for $3 per month, not including related data charges.