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Pandora Stabilizes, No Longer Completely Free

Posted by Soulskill on from the under-a-buck dept.

AbyssWyrm writes "Yesterday, Pandora founder Tim Westergren announced that the music service was on safe ground once again, but will no longer be free for all users. Instead, it will be really cheap — for those with a free account, there will be a cap of 40 hours per month, and a user may pay a one-time fee of $0.99 to resume unlimited listening to music for a month. According to the blog entry, this will affect the top 10% of listeners. Certainly not a bad deal considering the price, and I suspect that Pandora is one of few free internet resources whose users are loyal enough to pay a small fee to keep it afloat. Pandora's future had been uncertain ever since the royalty rates for internet radio were increased in 2007."

6 of 268 comments (clear)

  1. I guess by gubers33 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I guess a one time fee of $0.99 isn't too much to ask. I do have over that with the change in my pocket from my two coffees I go this morning.

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  2. Re:Ads & paid use by HasselhoffThePaladin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Always Relevant: XKCD

  3. Re:Ads & paid use by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's because ad supported doesn't actually work for any decent-sized service.

    TANSTAAFL. So suck it up and pay something if you enjoy it.

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  4. One time fee? by Ambiguous+Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not to be a terrible pedant, but if you pay a "one time fee" to get unlimited listening each month, it's not a one-time fee. It's a monthly fee. It just has a very low subscription cost.

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  5. Re:Fail by Sylos · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Don't hate pandora for this. Hate the record labels. Pandora is just trying to survive, but the RIAA is a bunch of bastards who want to milk everyone for money.

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    'Number-memorizing Chinese people.'-Anon
  6. Re:Have you read this? by Alsee · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There's an even worse one in there. How about:

    Furthermore, if the record label listed is a company you've never heard of, that should be another warning sign.

    That sounds to me like it's bordering on an anti-trust violation, smearing the smaller non-RIAA music labels as illegitimate and illegal. I haven't bought any RIAA CDs in years because they've been acting like dickwads, but even before they started acting like dickwads most of the CDs I bought *were* from record labels I'd never heard of. I did buy some "top 40 pop" stuff, but for the most part the RIAA labels just didn't carry what I wanted, and the "unheard of" indie labels did.

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