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Pandora unveils new logo as showdown with Spotify nears

Pandora unveils new logo as showdown with Spotify nears

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Putting on your war paint

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In the battle for supremacy in the music streaming biz, Pandora is very much the grizzled veteran. Since the company first launched back in 2000 (2000!), its look has barely changed, sticking to just two variations of a rather staid wordmark. Now, though, Pandora is getting a whole new look, unveiling a new logo and rebrand with a "vibrant and bold color scheme."

Marketing hyperbole aside, the new logo signals big changes for Pandora. It's part of the company's plan to increase its number of paid subscribers to 11 million by 2020 (amounting to a 182 percent increase) and to go head-to-head with the likes of Spotify and Apple Music with a fully on-demand music streaming service. The company first announced this was coming when it bought up bits of Rdio last November, but the latest reports are that it won't launch until later this year.

Currently, Pandora's paid tier, Pandora Plus (previously Pandora One), offers users an ad-free version of the company's personalized internet radio, with the ability to stream offline and skip songs for $4.99 a month. Pandora has roughly 78 million monthly active listeners, but only around 3.9 million paid subscribers — compared to Spotify's roughly 100 million active users and 40 million paying customers. Pandora wants to close this gap when its new on-demand service launches, and that's when the company's new look should really come into its own.