Pandora takes on Spotify and Apple Music with new family plan

Pandora is taking on Spotify and Apple Music with a new $15 family plan, which gives up to six users unlimited music streaming. The new plan matches the family plans offered by the two other big-time streaming services in pricing and number of users.

Currently, Pandora boasts 80 million listeners, but that's only for its free tier. The introduction of the new plan is the company's latest effort to flip some of those users into paying customers. As of January, Pandora only had 6 million paid subscribers. Prior to the introduction of the new plan, it only offered individual accounts for $10 a month.

Matching the family plans offered by Spotify and Apple Music makes Pandora's offering much more intriguing. It still has a long way to go before it catches up to Apple Music's 40 million subscribers and Spotify's 70 million subscribers, but the newest plan ensures it can stay relevant in the highly competitive streaming music market.

To activate the extra streaming accounts on the family plan, Pandora users just have to create their own account and link up to the primary account to get access to all of the benefits that come with the Premium service, which includes unlimited music streaming, custom radio stations and playlists, offline functionality, high quality audio and no ads.