Pandora

[kstu]

Hi, it?s Tim -

I hope this email finds you enjoying a great summer Pandora soundtrack.

I?m writing with some important news. Please forgive the lengthy email; it requires some explaining.

First, I want to let you know that we?ve reached a resolution to the calamitous Internet radio royalty ruling of 2007. After more than two precarious years, we are finally on safe ground with a long-term agreement for survivable royalty rates ? thanks to the extraordinary efforts of our listeners who voiced an absolute avalanche of support for us on Capitol Hill. We are deeply thankful.

While we did the best we could to lower the rates, we are going to 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 web. Because we have to pay royalty fees per song and per listener, it makes very heavy listeners hard to support on advertising alone. Most listeners will never hit this cap, but it seems that you might.

We hate the idea of capping anyone's usage, so we've been working to devise an alternative for listeners like you. We've come up with two solutions and we hope that one of them will work for you:

*

Your first option is to continue listening just as you have been and, if and when you reach the 40 hour limit in a given month, to pay just $0.99 for unlimited listening for the rest of that month. This isn't a subscription. You can pay by credit card and your card will be charged for just that one month. You'll be able to keep listening as much as you'd like for the remainder of the month. We hope this is relatively painless and affordable - the same price as a single song download.

*

Your second option is to upgrade to our premium version called Pandora One. Pandora One costs $36 per year. In addition to unlimited monthly listening and no advertising, Pandora One offers very high quality 192 Kbps streams, an elegant desktop application that eliminates the need for a browser, personalized skins for the Pandora player, and a number of other features: http://www.pandora.com/pandora_one.

If neither of these options works for you, I hope you'll keep listening to the free version - 40 hours each month will go a long way, especially if you're really careful about hitting pause when you?re not listening. We?ll be sure to let you know if you start getting close to the limit, and we?ve created a counter you can access to see how many hours you?ve already used each month.

We?ll be implementing this change starting this month (July), I?d welcome your feedback and suggestions. The combination of our usage patterns and the "per song per listener" royalty cost creates a financial reality that we can't ignore...but we very much want you to continue listening for years to come.

Please don't hesitate to email me back with your thoughts.

Sincerely,

Tim
Founder

 

[Mo0o]

What's to stop you from just making multiple accounts and sharing your stations across those accounts.

 

[CRXican]

no

 

[nerdress]

Every time I go on Pandora, they always show a gigantic ad of Pepto Bismol.

Apparently, Pandora seems to think I have explosive diarrhea all the time.

 

[newb111]

Originally posted by: nerdress
Every time I go on Pandora, they always show a gigantic ad of Pepto Bismol.

Apparently, Pandora seems to think I have explosive diarrhea all the time.

Listen to death metal much?

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

40 hours a month? That's not a lot of music! Pandora used to be cool before they cut off international access. Fuckers.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: nerdress
Every time I go on Pandora, they always show a gigantic ad of Pepto Bismol.

Apparently, Pandora seems to think I have explosive diarrhea all the time.

They REALLY think I want to go to Canada and that I don't have a passport.

Failx2

Yes, I got that e-mail.

I'm wondering the same thing about what happens if you make more than one account.

I'd estimate I have pandora on 12 hours a day 40 hours a month isn't going to cut it. I might just pay the $1 a month though... I can handle that :laugh:

 

[Slick5150]

I'm totally cool with paying the $1 a month. Its well worth that.

Actually, I'm thinking I might just upgrade to their Pandora One service. Higher quality streaming + desktop application for $36 / year.

 

[Mo0o]

They should do a program where if you click over $X worth of ads, they'll wave the costs for the month. I click their ads on a regular basis on the hopes that it throws them a buck or two since they provide a damn godo service.

This $36/month pandora One thing looks interesting. might be worth it to subscribe

 

[amdhunter]

Originally posted by: Slick5150
I'm totally cool with paying the $1 a month. Its well worth that.

Actually, I'm thinking I might just upgrade to their Pandora One service. Higher quality streaming + desktop application for $36 / year.

I thought about it too, until I realized it still has that limit on 6 forwards per hour. :|

 

[Slick5150]

Originally posted by: amdhunter

Originally posted by: Slick5150
I'm totally cool with paying the $1 a month. Its well worth that.

Actually, I'm thinking I might just upgrade to their Pandora One service. Higher quality streaming + desktop application for $36 / year.

I thought about it too, until I realized it still has that limit on 6 forwards per hour. :|

Thank the RIAA for that one.

In fact, thank the RIAA for all of this.

 

[nobody554]

$1/month is not bad. Granted I'd like for it to continually be free, but that ain't gonna happen.

 

[amdhunter]

Originally posted by: Slick5150

Originally posted by: amdhunter

Originally posted by: Slick5150
I'm totally cool with paying the $1 a month. Its well worth that.

Actually, I'm thinking I might just upgrade to their Pandora One service. Higher quality streaming + desktop application for $36 / year.

I thought about it too, until I realized it still has that limit on 6 forwards per hour. :|

Thank the RIAA for that one.

In fact, thank the RIAA for all of this.

Last.FM doesn't have that limit. (At least the one time I used it, it didn't seem like it.)

 

[Pegun]

Winamp has AOL radio built into it and Yahoo has their own radio stations. Once I start hitting limits, I'll use those two services instead or listen to online streams from local stations.