7 Best Pandora for Business Alternatives

What Is Pandora for Business?

Pandora for Business is an enterprise music product offered by the business music streaming service Pandora. Today, Pandora’s technology serves as the underlying music platform for products from both CloudCover and Mood Media.

Pros and Cons of Pandora for Business

On the surface, Pandora for Business may look like the perfect service provider for your company’s music streaming needs. It offers Pandora internet radio stations for business clients along with licensing coverage and features such as music and in-store messaging scheduling.

But Pandora for Business also has some surprising weaknesses. For example, businesses using this service can’t play music on demand. Additionally, Pandora for Business comes with fewer ready-made playlists and a more limited music selection than some competing services. Finally, Pandora for Business offers licensing only in the U.S. and Canada.

7 Pandora for Business Alternatives

To avoid the drawbacks associated with Pandora for Business, you should look at some alternative options. Here are seven competitors to consider: 

1. Soundtrack Your Brand

Soundtrack Your Brand offers useful features and a music library of over 100 million licensed songs and 1,000 playlists at a highly affordable price.

The service offers high-quality music to customers in 74 countries. In the US, that includes licenses for songs covered by ASCAP and BMI, which includes 95% of all songs available to American businesses.

Currently, Soundtrack is the only commercial music service that lets businesses play songs on demand and directly import their Spotify playlists. It also offers features like song-blocking capabilities, an explicit lyrics filter, and music scheduling. Plus, it’s the only music service that offers an AI Playlist Generator that crafts tailored playlists in seconds.

2. SiriusXM for Business

Since SiriusXM owns Pandora, SiriusXM for Business isn’t technically a Pandora for Business competitor, but it is a popular service for legally streaming licensed music in restaurants, bars, grocery stores, and other businesses. It offers over 200 playlists, Pandora artist stations, and satellite radio stations, but it  doesn’t allow on-demand streaming and is available only in the U.S.

3. SoundMachine

SoundMachine has over 61 million licensed tracks and 250 ready-made playlists, but like other Pandora for Business alternatives it doesn’t offer on-demand music streaming nor explicit lyrics filters. The latter of which can be a drawback for business owners, as playing explicit music can cause a bad customer experience.

Further, SoundMachine doesn’t display what’s in a playlist until it’s playing, and it does not offer a search or selection by business type.

While the service does allow users to import playlists from consumer services, it does so with strict guidelines and requires third-party apps. Imported playlists must have at least 100 songs and 20 different artists, and songs marked explicit are rejected, which may be limiting for some businesses.

4. Soundsuit

German-based SaaS music service Soundsuit.fm claims to have a catalog of over 100 million tracks and 500+ playlists. However, Soundsuit is another service provider limited to pre-made playlists, limiting customers from being able to play songs on demand through their service.

5. Mood Media

Mood Media is a legacy background music platform, offering commercially licensed music as well as services such as in-store signage and scents. With a relatively limited selection, they too offer Pandora for Business, as CloudCover does. Mood Media does not offer the ability to play what you want when you want, nor does it allow you to import your Spotify playlists and play them legally in your business.

6. PlayNetwork

Also owned by Mood Media, PlayNetwork offers curated playlists and audio-visual displays. However, PlayNetwork’s catalog of 120,000 songs is quite limited compared to other Pandora for Business competitors on this list.

7. TouchTunes

Unlike most other entries on this list, TouchTunes isn’t a traditional streaming service—instead, it’s a modernized jukebox. However, since choosing the right music can drive repeat business among 39% of US residents, leaving your soundtrack in the hands of your customers can be a risk.

How To Choose the Right Pandora for Business Alternative for Your Business

We’ve looked at some of the top commercial music streaming services available today. Before you choose one of the Pandora for Business alternatives listed above, be sure to think about:

Choice of Music

Even if your business primarily relies on playlists, the ability to play whatever you want, whenever you want, gives you the freedom to curate the perfect soundscape.

A professional music streaming service that offers a wide catalog of songs—and allows you to play them on demand—can be key to setting the right mood, creating the right atmosphere, and targeting the right customers.

Curated Playlists and Stations

On the other hand, you need to be able to trust your music streaming platform to pick music for you. You have plenty of tasks that demand your attention, and so do your staff.

The best enterprise streaming services offer thousands of playlists created by an algorithm and custom station capabilities—including the ability to enter a prompt and let your streaming service generate a bespoke playlist based on your preferences.

Licensing

Before your business can play music in public, you’ll need to have licenses from various performing rights organizations (PROs) like BMI, GMR, and ASCAP. A streaming service that comes with these licenses will save you the trouble (and expense) of getting them on your own.

Additional Features

Your business’s chosen platform for music streaming should also include a variety of powerful features. To that end, look for services that offer explicit lyrics filtering, playlist scheduling, and the ability to import Spotify playlists.