Pandora users have long utilized unlimited access to free streaming of music from the online service. However, the company is now implementing a limit of 40 hours worth of free monthly streaming for its mobile users. The move has been undertaken due to rising royalty costs which Pandora has to pay.
In the official blog post announcing the change, Pandora admits that it doesn’t want to do this since it is contradictory to Pandora’s mission. Nonetheless, the company also reveals that over the years, royalty costs have significantly risen and Pandora has to pay these royalties per track played.
To accommodate these costs without asking the users to pay a subscription fee, Pandora says it is forced to implement the limit for its mobile users. However, the limit should be of little concern to a whopping majority. The service divulges that currently, a mere 4% of its active listeners occasionally exceed that monthly limit and thus, the change will only affect them.
Even if you an avid Pandora listener, 40 hours essentially means that you can listen up to 600 songs in a given month before the limit is reached. That is more than sufficient for music on the go for mobile users.
However, if you must listen more than 40 hours a month and can’t be satiated with the 600 or so free songs, all you have to do is pay a very reasonable sum of $0.99 and then listen to all the Pandora music you wish. According to Pandora, this change will be implemented within a week.
Source: Pandora
Courtesy: Slashgear
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