Much like the Pandora website, the Pandora iPhone app is like having your very own personal radio station. All you have to do is enter the name of one of your favorite artists, songs, or composers, and Pandora will build you a customized radio station of songs and artists who are classified as being similar to the one you entered. In the interest of allowing users to fine tune their radio station even more, each song gives you the option to rate it “thumbs up” or “thumbs down”. This allows Pandora to more accurately choose songs that you may like based on your likes and dislikes. Users can also choose to skip tracks that aren’t quite what they were in the mood for. For songs you do enjoy, you can bookmark any artist or song. If a particular song really strikes your fancy, Pandora also provides the ability for you to purchase the song from the iTunes store with just a single click.

Before becoming a hit app for the iPhone, Pandora had already gained tons of success on the web. Current Pandora online users with an existing account can simply log in to their Pandora account on the iPhone. The app and website are fully integrated, and you can listen to all your existing stations and create new ones both online and using the iPhone app. The features that exist in Pandora online also exist in the iPhone app. You can easily look up album art or find out why Pandora thought you would be interested in a particular song.

Since its release in July of 2008 by publisher Pandora Enterprises, Inc., Pandora has been enjoying a huge degree of success in the App Store. Like its online counterpart, the Pandora Radio app for the iPhone is completely free. It is also hugely popular because unlike many other streaming music applications, it performs extremely well. Most users report being able to listen to their music in FM quality, and reports of skipping or other problems are limited. Pandora has also grown in popularity because its “intelligence” works. More often than not the stations created by Pandora accurately reflect the listener’s personal taste in music, so users spend little time skipping through songs trying to find one they like.