Spotify launches its own Pandora competitor, and it ain't too shabby

Initially available in Australia, Spotify’s Pandora-esque Stations app is now available in the U.S. The good news is that the app is pretty good, even though Spotify labels it as an “experiment.”

Just like Pandora, music automatically starts to play when you open Stations. The large lettering of the station names against the single-color background helps them stand apart from each other. Each station features its own background color, though the notification player still takes on the main color of the album art.

You can create stations based on artists or popular playlists in the main Spotify app. You can add or remove artists, as well as rename or delete stations and include or exclude similar artists. Keep in mind that you can’t add artists to stations based on Spotify playlists.

That wasn’t the only quirk I encountered with the Spotify Stations app. You can’t change the music quality like you can in the main Spotify app, nor can you swipe up on the song that’s currently playing to get more information. That means you’re limited to the small media controls — there’s no rewind button, but you have access to thumbs up, thumbs down, pause, and next track buttons — at the bottom when the app is open.

Also, Spotify’s notification player shows up alongside the Stations notification player if you have the former app open in the background. An easy solution is to close the Spotify app in the background, but it’s just something to look out for.

Even with these oddities, Stations is a good app to try out if you’re a fan of Spotify. The app is visually minimalist but informative, and it actually remembers your progress in a station as you jump across them.

You can grab the Spotify Stations app at the link below. Premium members get unlimited skips and ad-free listening, while free users are stuck with limited skips and ads.