Pandora starts on-demand music subscription service

NEW YORK – Internet radio company Pandora is launching an on-demand music service for $10 a month.

Pandora’s existing service works more like radio. People listen to music on customizable stations. The premium service launching this month will let users choose specific songs or albums and will personalize recommendations based on people’s listening habits. There is also an “offline mode.”

The new Pandora Premium offering will compete with Apple Music and Spotify, both of which have given the music-streaming pioneer a run for its money. Spotify has 50 million subscribers, while Pandora had about 4.4 million as of the end of 2016. That’s because most people listen to Pandora without paying; the company has 81 million total “active listeners.”

Until now, the Pandora subscription mostly stripped out ads — for $5 a month.