Pandora gets competitive with new $15 monthly family plan

Music streaming service Pandora is taking the fight to Apple, Google and Spotify with a new premium plan that brings tunes to your whole family's ears for $14.99 per month.

Pandora's new plan offers unlimited streaming for up to six users, and is the same price as Google, Apple and Spotify's family offerings – though Apple Music is less generous, only letting five family members tune in at once. Sorry, grandma.

Each user has their own account, which they can use to create playlists and custom radio stations. They can also download tracks for offline listening, and there are no ads to worry about.

Wait up!

Pandora has a history of being late to the game – its premium offering only launched last year, and although generous, it didn't offer anything music lovers couldn't already get through its competitors' more established services.

Its new family plan feels like another attempt to keep up with the Joneses, but its rivals are moving in different directions.

For example, Google has just launched YouTube Music – a video-focused alternative to Google Play Music. An individual YouTube Music Premium subscription costs the same as any other streaming service ($9.99 per month)

YouTube Music doesn't yet offer family plans for multiple users, but we expect that feature will appear as Google rolls out the service more widely.

Meanwhile, Apple is reaching beyond its native environment with a new native desktop app for Windows 10. If Pandora really wants to keep up with the pack it might need to do more to differentiate itself, or be left behind.