Pandora To Begin Charging Heavy Users; How Much Will It Cost You?
July 7th, 2009 by Jeffrey L. Wilson
If you’re a fan of Pandora’s streaming internet radio service, you can finally breathe easy. The company (along with other internet radio outlets) had the shadow of a royalty increase looming overhead, but it appears that it has hammered out a deal that will keep it afloat. But in the effort to stay alive, Pandora had to make some sacrifices. And so may you. In an e-mail to TechCrunch, Pandora CTO Tom Conrad wrote:
While we feel this is a substantive victory, the revised royalties are quite high – still much higher than any other form of radio. As a consequence, we will have to make an adjustment that will affect about 10% of our users who are our heaviest listeners. Specifically, we are going to begin limiting listening to 40 hours per month on the free version of Pandora. In any given month, a listener who hits this limit can then opt for unlimited listening for the remainder of that month for just $0.99. In essence, we’re asking our heaviest users to put a dollar (well, almost a dollar) in the tip jar in any month in which they listen over 40 hours. We hope this is relatively painless and affordable-the same price as a single song download. Alternatively, they can upgrade to “Pandora One”, our premium version which offers unlimited monthly listening in addition to its other benefits.
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