Look out Pandora: Spotify brings free radio to iPhone & iPad

Streaming music startup Spotify has added a Pandora-like radio service to its iOS applications, finally giving free Spotify users in the U.S. a reason to download the Spotify app for their iPhones and iPads.

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Spotify has offered its own radio service inside the Spotify desktop application since mid-May. If you used Spotify and Pandora, it would most likely make you want to drop Pandora to make your music-listening-life simpler.

Now Spotify is bringing that radio app to the iPhone and iPad, and both free and premium Spotify users can take part. Previously, free Spotify users had virtually no reason to use the mobile app because only premium users who pay $10 a month get access to streaming music on iOS devices. Now, free users can download the Spotify iOS app and get some functionality out of it. Premium users will get radio access in iOS too, and because they pay, they have no advertising and unlimited skips.

“Our focus has always been on creating an amazing user experience,” Spotify product VP Charlie Hellman, said in a statement. “The radio feature we’ve added to our iPhone and iPad apps gives users the ability to discover, listen, and save what they like on the go — all within one app — for free.”

The updated Spotify iOS app is now available for download in the App Store. The company will add radio functionality to its Android app in the near future as well.

Check out the gallery below for more looks at the awesome radio addition:

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