Pandora Stories launches, combining music and podcasting in a new format

In an effort to one-up Spotify and Apple Music, Pandora this morning announced the launch of a new marketing tool for artists, called Pandora Stories. The feature allows artists to build music playlists combined with voice tracks, where they can add a narrative and deeper insights -- explaining, for example, what a song means for them, what inspired their music, the story behind the music or anything else they want to add. When listeners play these Pandora Stories playlists, they get to hear both the music and the storytelling, interspersed.