Pandora finally hits Windows Phone in early 2013

Good news, streaming music fans. Pandora is finally making its way to Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform.

The Pandora app will land early next year on Windows Phone 8, Microsoft’s Windows Phone head, Joe Belfiore, announced today at a press event in San Francisco. The app will also come with a year of free ad-free music.

Belfiore noted today that there are now 120,000 apps available for Windows Phone, and he was proud to announce that the platform will have 46 of the top 50 apps as well. It’s important for Microsoft to land popular apps like Pandora, because they’re often essential to users of other platforms. Without Pandora, Microsoft would have a hard time convincing iPhone and Android music fans to jump ship.

Unfortunately, Belfiore wasn’t able to demo the app, which makes us think it’s not ready for showtime just yet.

Photo: Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat