Pandora Premium arrives on Google Home

Google Home

Pandora Premium subscribers can now use their voice to control their music on any device with Google Assistant built in – including Google Home, Mini and Max, plus third-party smart speakers like Polk.

Set Pandora Premium as your default music streaming service, then simply say "Hey Google, play" followed by the name of a song, artist, playlist or station. If you want to play a song but can't remember the title, just say part of the lyrics and Pandora will find it for you. 

You can rate tracks hands-free, giving them a thumbs up or down using only your voice. It's also possible to skip or repeat a track, or even make a whole new playlist with simple spoken commands.

Sounding good

Pandora Premium is a direct challenger to the likes of Apple Music, Google Play Music and Spotify, offering custom playlists, smart search and recommendations for $9.99 per month.

Support for Google Assistant is a long anticipated feature. Users of Pandora Plus and the free ad-supported service  have been able to manage their tunes via via Google Home since September 2016, and its addition to Pandora Premium puts it more in line with its competitors.

Cat Ellis

Cat is the editor of TechRadar's sister site Advnture. She’s a UK Athletics qualified run leader, and in her spare time enjoys nothing more than lacing up her shoes and hitting the roads and trails (the muddier, the better)