Pandora just totally redesigned its homepage

Pandora announced a brand new interface, built from the ground up, for folks who use its web-based service. Previously, one might have gone to Pandora.com to kickstart some tunes, create a new playlist, or skip through some music. It’s now much more of a portal for your music, and for users to learn more about their favorite artists.

There’s a new “immersive playing view,” for example, that lives at the bottom of the screen. It’s where you’ll control your tunes, but also learn more about the tunes you’re playing. Pandora says users can read artist bios, find upcoming tour dates and locations and follow along with lyrics. Pandora also said it made it much easier to browse through the history of songs you’ve played, in case you want to jump back and listen to that tune that was playing while you were washing the dishes.

Pandora is also bringing its ad-supported free service to the web. It existed before, but users didn’t have an unlimited number of skips. Now, they simply need to watch an advertisement and they’ll be able to continue skipping. Pandora Plus users, the folks who pay for Pandora, will be able to restart songs, skip to favorites and more.

Keeping things fresh with Pandora’s new homepage

Pandora is no doubt feeling the heat from competitors such as Spotify, Apple Music and more. Offering a more compelling web interface that aligns with its Pandora Plus experience on mobile is a smart move. Plus, it’s always a good idea to liven things up now and then.