Facing stiff competition from Spotify and Apple Music, Pandora has been going through some changes lately. It rebranded its $5 tier to give users more “skips” and the ability to download songs for offline listening, and it introduced a $10 “premium” tier that basically replicates everything you can do on Spotify. Along with these changes, Pandora changed its logo from a traditional serifed “P” to a bold, blockier “P” in a lighter blue.
Unfortunately for Pandora, that new logo happens to look a lot like the PayPal logo, and the New York Post is reporting that the payment facilitation service is now suing the music streamer for allegedly ripping off its design. Here’s a side-by-side comparison from Gizmodo, with PayPal on the left and Pandora on the right:
In its suit, PayPal says that Pandora is falling apart, so it “latched itself onto the increasingly popular PayPal logo” in an attempt to gain some ground on Spotify. In other words, PayPal says that it is so successful and that its logo is so beloved that Pandora sought to capitalize on the public’s adoration for PayPal by ripping off the logo. PayPal is particularly incensed by this because it really cares about its double-P logo, with the lawsuit laying out its beauty in contrast to Pandora’s (alleged) soulless knockoff:
The PayPal Logo was meticulously developed to exemplify simplicity, convenience, and security. Every detail of the design has a specific purpose. The counters in the Ps were closed to achieve a more compact form that is easier to read. The color was chosen to infuse energy into the logo and to portray confidence and vitality, while harmonizing with PayPal’s longstanding color scheme.
And it goes on like that for a while. PayPal is looking to prevent Pandora from continuing to use its new “P” logo, and in a statement to Gizmodo, PayPal explains that it had no choice but to take the matter to court after Pandora “would not agree to resolve this matter amicably.”
[Note: Fusion, like The A.V. Club, is owned by Univision Communications.]