Pandora now lets you listen to albums before they're released
The Pandora Premieres channel will refresh every week with new artists, such as John Fogerty.
Pandora, the music streaming site and app, on Tuesday launched Pandora Premieres, a station that allows listeners to preview upcoming albums up to a week before their release. The company said it will feature previews from a wide variety of artists, both established and emerging and across multiple genres.
Pandora Premieres will be updated weekly with new releases. Users can choose to hear any track on a featured album, in any order, and as many times as they'd like, for the time period the album is available on the station. Some artists also will offer additional exclusive content such as video interviews.
The albums debuting Tuesday include artists from the classic rock and folk music genres, including John Fogerty's "Wrote a Song for Everyone" and Laura Marling's "Once I Was an Eagle."
While Pandora said Premieres will include established artists, it's unclear whether any of them will have the buzz of Kanye West or other top performers. A Pandora spokesman told CNET that "we cannot comment on future artists but are ensuring that we are covering a wide range of genres and showcasing both established and emerging artists, true to Pandora's spirit of discovery."
Competition in the streaming music industry has been heating up of late. Along with the traditional players of Pandora and Spotify, Google also is getting in on the act with $9.99 per month service, and Twitter has launched a music discovery app. Apple also is believed to be prepping a music streaming service of its own. With Pandora Premieres, the company likely is hoping to attract more users to its site and keep them coming back more often as more alternatives come online.
Updated at 7:20 a.m. PT with additional comment from Pandora.