Pandora's new on-demand service is finally available to everyone - here's what it's like

PandoraOn Monday, Pandora completed the rollout of its new on-demand service, which competes with the likes of Spotify and Apple Music, and is key to the company's future.

Pandora has a massive and loyal audience, and its leadership is betting big that Pandora Premium, the new on-demand service, will be a hit.

"We intend to be profitable this year," Pandora CEO Tim Westergren said last month on CNBC. A chunk of that goal is likely tied to on-demand, where Pandora wants to have 6 to 9 million subscribers by the end of the year.

I spent about a week trying Pandora Premium before it launched, and I have both good news and bad news for Pandora investors.

The good news is that it's a beautiful and intuitive product, and is likely to snag some of Pandora's internet-radio fans, especially with playlist-building features that leverage Pandora's trove of historical data on longtime users. The bad news is that there are a few places where Pandora Premium misses on the chance to be the first service to seamlessly integrate on-demand with the "lean-back" style of listening Pandora is famous for.

Here's what I mean: