Online radio service Pandora today announced a rebranding of its iOS and Android apps, complete with a new logo that includes a "vibrant and bold color scheme" that the company says will showcase "the next phase of the product and the music experiences Pandora brings you." The app's icon has transitioned from a gray background with a navy blue "P" to an all-white background a lighter, bolder "P." It's also shifted from an uppercase to a lowercase font choice for "Pandora."
The company's aim with the updated brand scheme is to introduce an aesthetic that "embraces the dynamic range of sound and color," so the logo can adapt to any musician, song, or genre available on Pandora. The new P icon is said to serve as the user's "portal" into the streaming radio service and its new ad-free subscription service Pandora Plus. Pandora also created a video to showcase its new brand.
Music is a personal experience for everyone, from the artists creating it all the way to the fans listening to it. And as Pandora continues to evolve the most personal music experience, our new look embraces the dynamic range of sound and color, visualizing the energy and emotion that artists pour into the creation of music, and that we feel as listeners. Our dynamic brand is composed of form, color and pattern, which we implemented into the new P icon and serves as your portal into the unique and diverse range of music you love.
The rebranding comes ahead of Pandora's impending on-demand music listening service, which CEO Tim Westergren has confirmed will arrive "later this year." The service is believed to cost $9.99 and offer users the ability to listen to any song and musician they want, create playlists, and various other features, all putting it in the competitive music streaming category alongside Apple Music and Spotify.
Amazon today also entered the on-demand music streaming space with Music Unlimited, which grants users access to tens of millions of songs and costs $9.99 per month (or $7.99 for Amazon Prime subscribers). If users have an Amazon Echo, they can also subscribe to an Echo-only $3.99 streaming option.
For Pandora, the company mentioned that the rebranding will begin to rollout to iOS and Android users throughout today, "whether you listen to ad-supported Pandora or Pandora Plus." The new look will then make it to the desktop, web, and other devices "over the year."
Top Rated Comments
This is part of the trouble when management throw money at things like this for months on end. Daily meetings, full of fat cats jerking each other off at the table, exchanging 'ideas' and knocking up spreadsheets about the psychological impact of different hues.
Overworked, underpaid graphic designers, getting it in the neck when their latest drafts (outdated by 4 meetings they weren't consulted in) doesn't quite suit the "ethos" of the company.
All this time and effort, until the management are eventually convinced that what they've 'created' is something truly awe-inspiring and brands the company in a way that the old thing never could; forgetting that it's just a bloomin' logo. Plus it looks ugly as poop too. It's all hot air.
(Oops, that got a little personal. I'm not even sure if I'm talking about Pandora any more:oops:)
EDIT: Kudos to Apple for having one logo, and sticking with it for eternity (colors notwithstanding). It's not easy, and I find it commendable.
Just keep the ability to bookmark songs for possible later purchase from iTunes/wherever! Every Pandora update I worry about that.
That's how I discover most of the iTunes music I buy, and it's how Pandora makes most of the money they get from me (the rest would be ads).
It drives me crazy that they removed that from the Web version. I hear a song or artist I might like to buy later, but Pandora doesn't want the commission? And thumbs-up is very much not the same: it changes the mix of your station. Bookmarked tracks are simply that--bookmarked to check out later. And often I want to investigate that artist in general, not boost that one track.