Pandora to Limit Listeners to 40 Hours Free Per Month
Pandora announced its plans to limit listeners to only 40 hours of free listening per month in a post on the company's blog yesterday.
"This week we will begin communicating directly with a small number of our listeners as we introduce a 40-hour-per-month limit on free mobile listening," said Pandora.
The company feels that most users of the service will never reach this limit and that it will affect less than 4 percent of the total active listeners. The average Pandora user only spends 20 hours per month using the internet radio.
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Those who listen to Pandora for over 40 hours per month have two choices that will allow them to continue using the service for the remainder of that month. One of these choices includes subscribing to Pandora One for unlimited listening and no advertising. The other choice involves the listener paying a $0.99 fee for unlimited access for the rest of that month.
"In short, this is an effort to balance the reality of increasing royalty costs with our desire to maximize free access to free listening on Pandora," wrote the company. "We will be sure to alert any of our listeners that start getting close to the 40 hour limit."
Pandora's per-track royalties have recently increased as they are 25 percent more expensive than they were just three years ago. The rates rose 9 percent in 2013 alone, and are expected to increase an additional 16 percent over the next two years.
Pandora functions as an online radio service and allows the listener to choose what artist they would like to listen to. Once the artist is chosen, the service will provide the listener with similar sounding acts on their station.
