Even though confirmation is yet to come by, this news caused Pandora’s shares to take a hit of 16 percent. But just how big of a playing field is the music streaming business? Of course, Nokia tried to get in on the action through Nokia Music features on its smartphones, but its exclusivity limits its business potential. The latest version lets users stream music from over 150 Nokia-created playlists, create their own playlists, and even listen to music offline. And then there was the recent announcement by prepaid carrier Cricket about including unlimited music from Muve as part of its plans for Android users. Starting from $50 and going up to $70, these plans even offer unlimited talktime and data connectivity options to users. The company states its move came after surveying its users on what they felt was the most vital experience they expected from their smartphones, to which the users indicated the need for music. Although music streaming for web browsers and more recently, smartphones by way of apps, is ever increasing in popularity as of now, we wonder what will happen once Apple enters and changes the game, just like it has done to so many other aspects of our lives.
