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Pandora Launches Unlimited Premium Family Plan For $15 Per Month (betanews.com)

Mark Wycislik-Wilson, writing for BetaNews: Looking to better compete with the likes of Apple Music and Spotify, Pandora has launched a new Premium Family package. The new package offers unlimited access to all of Pandora's premium features for up to six people. The price is just $15 per month, but there's a 60-day free trial available so you can try it out for size first. Pandora explains that the new package offers "all of the features of Pandora Premium to up to six unique Pandora accounts simultaneously" and costs $14.99 USD monthly or $164.89 annually. As noted by Phone Arena, there are no limits on the number of tracks that can be streamed, there are no ads, and subscribers are free to download music for offline listening.

44 comments

  1. Pandora isn’t available where you are yet. by Frederic54 · · Score: 1

    anyway US$15 to listen to music? Apple music, Youtube music, Google Music, etc, don't want to pay $50/month for music, I'll switch to radio or other free options

    --
    "Science will win because it works." - Stephen Hawking
  2. Re: Imagine paying for music by reanjr · · Score: 2

    Most of them. I don't know anyone who doesn't get most of their music from a streaming service anymore.

    I still buy tracks and download them. But I don't listen to shitty throwaway fad music that is only popular for a couple weeks. I still revisit tracks from decades ago. So the value I get from a $0.80 track is pretty good.

  3. Re: GEOLOCKED ADVERTISING by reanjr · · Score: 0

    No one gives a shit about your worthless foreign money.

  4. Re:Pandora isn’t available where you are yet by TFlan91 · · Score: 2

    VPN's are so hard. /s

    As a long time user of Pandora, and as an American living outside of the US, connecting to a VPN in the States to use State-side services is a daily occurrence and is a brainless operation now. Stop whining.

    Actually, after hooking up Alexa, she seems to be able to stream Pandora without a VPN to the States. Nice work around for now, but requires Alexa.

  5. Re:GEOLOCKED ADVERTISING by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    hmmmm. last i checked, /. is, was, and has always been an american-based web site. it will always have u.s.-centric posts, until such time as a non-u.s. company acquires it and changes its traditional focus to something or somewhere else.

  6. Re:Pandora isn’t available where you are yet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    anyway US$15 to listen to music? Apple music, Youtube music, Google Music, etc, don't want to pay $50/month for music, I'll switch to radio or other free options

    Have you heard the radio lately? They're making damn sure you'll hate it and when the ratings drop so low stations "have to close", they'll buy up the radio spectrum (88Mhz-106Mhz.. give or take depending on your region).

    One thing broadcast radio still has over streaming is lack of real time analytics. It's no ones business what I listen to.

  7. Re:Pandora isn’t available where you are yet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How are you streaming your whole catalog away from home? I use Plex but most consumers are not even savvy enough to do that.

  8. Re:Imagine paying for music by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sirus radio calls me sometimes calls me and asks for feedback, because they want me to enable it in my car my comments:

    1. Content is not compelling, especially with no real "talk radio" content.
    2. The price is too high. They ask what I would be willing to spend. I say $1 a year. Leave the ads in. It's fine.
    3. How do I disable/remove Sirus from my vehicle.

    I typically use AntennaPod which downloads podcast content on WiFi, then stream offline in the car.

  9. Re:Pandora isn’t available where you are yet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How do you get that to work? I used to love Pandora, but the app won't install from Canada through VPN. I used to get by it through side loading but they blocked VPNs right from the app for me.

  10. Re:Pandora isn’t available where you are yet by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

    He probably paid the premium for one of those phones with more than 32Gb of storage that are becoming so rare.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  11. Re:Pandora isn’t available where you are yet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And you listen to recompressed music through Alexa... wow that's really high quality sound. Wouldn't do it for free.

  12. After 18 years of existance, it's USA only by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Pandora launched in 2000. As a Canadian, I used the service in 2004-2006 on the website. It was great to discover new independent music similar to what I liked already. After 18 years, Pandora is still only available in the US. We have Spotify and other streaming services, but Pandora is the only one that has integration with my Pioneer headunit in my car. Give Spotify's recent troubles, I don't think that streaming services are profitable to the point where the businesses are robust. Does anyone still use Pandora?

    1. Re:After 18 years of existance, it's USA only by mschwanke97402 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Does anyone still use Pandora?

      I started using Pandora again after a couple of years on Apple Music because the song selection of my Apple Radio stations went to hell with the iOS 11 release. The dislike song is apparently non-functional in Apple Radio these days as well.

      I tried Spotify for a while and really did not like the UI at all. They did better with song selection than Apple but the playlist for a station seems to be set when you choose one single artist or song as the seed.

      Pandora lets you choose multiple artists or songs as seeds for your station. They come up with great songs that is related to the type of music in your station. I've encountered quite a few artists that I'd not previously heard on Pandora.

      This family plan might just be the deal to get me to switch away from Apple Music.

    2. Re:After 18 years of existance, it's USA only by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I had Pandora streaming to my house though a squeezebox server.... until they disabled it in Canada. Spotify seems ok, but I much more enjoy selecting music by qualities like Pandora did. Selecting by genre means I have to listen to any song by every artist in that genre which is not what I want. If Pandora came back to Canada I would use it in an instant.

  13. Re: Pandora isn’t available where you are ye by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And tell me how you get **reliable** VPN for free, Sherlock. Itâ(TM)s around 5$ per month for a reliable VPN. So add it to the cost.

  14. What is Pandora? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The summary/advertisement could try explaining what it's selling, no? One would think that it would make it more effective.

    1. Re:What is Pandora? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pandora is the MySpace of music streaming services. It's what everyone used before Spotify existed.

    2. Re: What is Pandora? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not everyone, as far as I can tell it doesnâ(TM)t exist outside of North America.

  15. Re:Pandora isn’t available where you are yet by OtisSnerd · · Score: 3, Informative

    He probably paid the premium for one of those phones with more than 32Gb of storage that are becoming so rare.

    I recently put a 200GB SanDisk flash into my cheap Samsung (ATT) prepaid Go phone. There's no streaming needed, and I have all my music with me. I have about 50GB left free on the flash, so I've got a long ways to go yet before it's full. I also have SiriusXM with both a sat radio and the phone app, but streaming is sub-optimal.

    I collect music and have done so since the late '80s. I have over a thousand CDs, all of which I've ripped to WAV files, and then converted to MP3s. I continue to purchase CDs at the many local thrift stores, maybe another 50 a year, plus purchase MP3s from Amazon.

    When driving, it's just a cable to connect to the radio to play through the car's speakers.

    This came in real handy when I had major surgery in mid Feb, and got stuck in the hospital for nine days. At least I had all my music on the phone, and the Kindle app on the tablet for entertainment.

  16. Re:Imagine paying for music by mschwanke97402 · · Score: 0

    What sort of brainless consumer cuck would you have to be to pay monthly for music.

    What sort of person do you have to be to post in such an obnoxiously, offensive manner. Oh, right, an Anonymous Coward.

  17. Re:Imagine paying for music by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're offended because you self-identify as a consumer, and perceive an attack on your particular consumer choices as attack on your core identity.
    As such you leave yourself open to true cynics who see that real choice has been eliminated, and all that is left is illusory, replaced by mere representation.

  18. Re:Pandora isn’t available where you are yet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hmm, there are so many thousands of free internet radio stations. I use streamtuner/streamripper and then play the music advertisement free. I guess I'm just cheap.

  19. Re:Pandora isn’t available where you are yet by TFlan91 · · Score: 1

    I honestly didn't have to do anything.

    I bought an Alexa in the States while visiting, then plugged it in, installed the Pandora skill, and it worked.

  20. Re:Pandora isn’t available where you are yet by The+Good+Reverend · · Score: 1

    With Apple Music (or Spotify, or Pandora), I could listen to 10 new albums every single day for that $180/year - more than 3,500 albums. Or I can listen to any given specific song, anytime I want - new stuff, old stuff, obscure stuff. I don't feel like I need to own music anymore, given how many other places there are to listen.

  21. Re:Imagine paying for music by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "What sort of brainless consumer cuck would you have to be to pay monthly for music."

    What sort of person do you have to be to post in such an obnoxiously, offensive manner. Oh, right, an Anonymous Coward.

    And, an active member of the brainwashed alt-right, who seem to be obsessed with cuckholds for no discernible reason.

    Their entire debating skills boil down to "people I disagree with are cucks, derp derp derp".

    If you apply the use of that word as a discriminator of intelligence, you can pretty much assume that anybody using it is an asshole and a moron parroting someone else's words.

    I've yet to see anybody with any intelligence actually use the phrase.

  22. Re:Imagine paying for music by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    same with 'derp'

  23. Not enough content I want to listen too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    I listen to Amazon Prime music and buy what few tracks or albums that really peak my interest. Lot of music today is not memorable and not worth the $15 a month to have access too. I think they should offer a plan with a pre defined limit of devices and tracks per month. That way a person with only a casual listener could justify the monthly costs. After all I only pay $11 a month for Netflix and Prime is only around that same price for all its services. Sorry, $15 a month for just music tracks is a bit much.

  24. Re:Pandora isn’t available where you are yet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Services have started blacklisting VPN providers, enjoy it while it lasts.

  25. Re:Pandora isn’t available where you are yet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have several 128GB micro SD cards and numerous 128GB USB flash drives. My MP3 player is slightly larger than a quarter. I'm not dependant upon external services and subscriptions fees to listen to my music.

  26. Re: Imagine paying for music by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What kind of broke ass plan can't afford a small fee for listening to a stupendously huge catalog of music on demand is the real question.

  27. Re:GEOLOCKED ADVERTISING by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Great job MODS! Selling ads around the world for a service not available outside of the USA! BRILLIANT!!

    MODS = WHORES

    Dude, what the fuck do moderators have to do with Slashdot's ad system?

    Don't like it, install an ad blocker like everyone else.

    Quit your fucking whining.

  28. Re:Pandora isn’t available where you are yet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh and the quality of your lossy compressed music is crap, while mine is lossless and flawless. But I'm guessing you use crap headphones since you've already demonstrated that you don't have a passion for music.

  29. Re:Pandora isn’t available where you are yet by The+Good+Reverend · · Score: 2

    Apple's catalog is as big as any of the other services, and except for a few obscure comedy albums, there's never been something I've looked for and not found on the service.

    As for access, I live in the suburbs. I commute to a bigger city nearby. 98% of my vacationing is to northern California, Nevada, and Arizona, and there's cell coverage/internet access everywhere but inside the national parks. Regardless, Apple lets you download music from its service to your device, and I do have a few thousand songs from my CD collection available as well for those rare off-the-grid times. I'm never lacking for music.

    You're welcome to purchase and modify your few hundred songs if you have an issue with these services. I'll enjoy my 30,000,000+, whenever I want them.

  30. Re: Pandora isn’t available where you are ye by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Get a $5 VPS.
    Tunnel through SSH.
    Done.

  31. UNLIMITED!!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Until it's not.

    Yeah i fell for that already thanks. Pass.

    1. Re:UNLIMITED!!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know, right?

      I decided to give their free trial a try. Most of the music I enjoy I discovered through Pandora, but only after an insane number of hours spent listening to the same garbage over and over again, and constantly seeding new stations with songs I don't even really like just to hear something new. It's such a torturous experience that in the past few years I'd largely given it up. So I thought "well, with unlimited skips, at least I can skip past the bullshit I've heard a thousand times before, and get to new stuff faster." It took all of an hour before it told me I couldn't skip anymore, so I canceled it.

      If Pandora wants more business, they could try not sucking cock when it comes to making recommendations. FFS, I know which musical attributes are important to me and which aren't. Let me provide more feedback to the process than just "thumbs up" and "thumbs down."

      FWIW, I just figured out today that Spotify has a free version and a working Linux app, and I can't speak for its redundancy yet as I've only been listening for a few hours, but at least it's not playing the same songs I don't like that Pandora has played for me hundreds of times each. (A thumbs down doesn't really work. Eventually stations turn to complete garbage after you've thumbed down everything Pandora thinks is similar, so you have to start over with new station seeds and then you get to hear the same shit songs again. Pandora could really use a global thumbs-down.)

  32. Nice Try by dohzer · · Score: 1

    Nice try, but YouTube has videos AND music.

  33. Re:Pandora isn’t available where you are yet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What sorcery is this? You can play music without having to stream with a third party app full of DRM crap? Some one contact the authorities!

  34. And who allowed this obvious add? by Sqreater · · Score: 2

    Is this now policy of Slashdot - to sell adds as news items for tech people?

    --
    E Proelio Veritas.
  35. Re:Pandora isn’t available where you are yet by MightyYar · · Score: 1

    Yeah, that low dynamic range pop music played through a pringles can speaker into your kitchen really suffers because of the _compression_.

    And before that we lived with radio, LPs, and -shiver- tape. Your assumptions about people's need for quality seem erroneous.

    --
    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.