Pandora Limiting Free Users to 40 Hours/Month

I use Pandora every day. I have more than 30 stations and an orgy of bands I please my ears with. I mainly listen to Baroness, Chillstep Station that includes goodies from Blackmill, Zeppelin, Tool, Gojira, the Indie Rock station, and many many more. (I've included my stations if you're interested in listening to some great music.) I love music and this news actually irritates me but I understand the legal and financial reasons behind such a move.

This is the email sent out to Pandora users.

Hi, it's Tim –
I hope this email finds you enjoying a favorite Pandora station.

I'm writing to give you an important heads up. In an effort to balance the reality of increasing royalty costs with our desire to maximize access to free listening on Pandora, we are implementing a 40-hour per month limit on free mobile listening.
Pandora's per-track royalty rates have increased more than 25% over the last three 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 our costs with minimal listener disruption.

Less than 4% of listeners will ever hit this limit, but based on your listening it seems that you might. To keep the music you love flowing we have a variety of easy options for you to consider if you reach the 40-hour limit: listen for free as much as you'd like on desktop and laptop computers; pay $0.99 for unlimited, ad-supported listening for the remainder of that month; or become a Pandora One subscriber to get unlimited listening with no advertising.

We'll be implementing this change starting in March and will be sure to let you know if you're approaching the limit. As always, your feedback and suggestions are welcome, so don't hesitate to shoot us an email. For more details on this change, please click here.

Thanks for listening,
Tim
Founder

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