San Antonio — The Pandora Internet radio service moved further out of the computer box with the announcement that the subscription-streaming service will be available through eight AT&T Wireless cellphones incorporating high-speed 3G technology.
Earlier this year, Sprint launched Pandora’s service through select CDMA 1x EV-DO phones. Pandora is also available in the home on a PC, and also through Sonos’ wireless music system and through digital media adapters such Logitech’s Wi-Fi-equipped Squeeze Box.
Oakland, Calif.-based Pandora lets users create up to 100 personalized music channels by entering the name of a song or artist. The service then creates a personalized radio station that continuously streams songs with similar musical attributes, including melody, harmony, rhythm, instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics and vocals.
On their AT&T phones, Pandora subscribers receive the same customized streams as they do on their home via the Pandora Web site. Up to 100 stations can be saved in a user’s account, and users can pause songs or skip songs that they don’t want to hear.
Pandora costs $8.99 a month for streaming to a PC and to the phones, plus data charges for cellphone streaming. One such data plan, $19.99/month MEdia Max plan, provides unlimited mobile Web-browsing as well as unlimited access to streaming video, CV basic content and 200 text messages.
AT&T’s other music services include phones compatible with over-the-air music download services powered by eMusic and Napster, XM Radio streams via cellular airwaves, and phones that play protected music downloads (purchased and subscription downloads) that are side-loaded from a PC.
