2-27-2013
Founder Tim Westergren is hoping at least a small percentage of Pandora's overall subscriber base will pay if they listen a lot. In his most recent blog Westergren tells subscribers they will no longer have unlimited free listening. Pandora will cut you off after 40 hours of mobile listening. He says that affects less then 4% of Pandora subscribers and the reason is the cost of content. "Pandora's per-track royalty rates have increased more than 25% over the last 3 years, including 9% in 2013 alone and are scheduled to increase an additional 16% over the next two years. After a close look at our overall listening, a 40-hour-per-month mobile listening limit allows us to manage these escalating costs with minimal listener disruption."
Westergren says the average listener spends approximately 20 hours listening to Pandora across all devices in any given month. "For listeners who do hit the limit, we have a variety of options available to keep the music you love flowing. Listen for free for as many hours as desired on desktop and laptop computers; pay $0.99 for unlimited listening for the remainder of that month, or subscribe to Pandora One for unlimited listening and no advertising."
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