Pandora to cap free mobile listening

[Tilted (Premo)]

Pandora Media to cap free mobile listening as costs surge

Feb 27 (Reuters) - U.S. online streaming music company Pandora Media Inc said it would cap free mobile listening at 40 hours per month as it tries to overcome rising royalty costs.

Pandora, which relies mainly on advertising for revenue, is struggling to grow amid fierce competition from the likes of Sirius XM Radio Inc .

Pandora's per-track royalty rates have increased more than 25 percent over the last 3 years, including 9 percent in 2013 alone and are set to increase an additional 16 percent over the next two years, co-founder Tim Westergren wrote in a blog posted on the company's website.

[slotpuppy]

I have used slacker radio in the past, liked it better than pandora.

[Chris0nllyn]

Originally Posted by slotpuppy

I have used slacker radio in the past, liked it better than pandora.

See, I'm the opposite.

I had Slacker at first, but switched to Pandora.

[GURPS (Premo)]

I used Pandora, heard about and tried Slacker, deleted that and went back to Pandora






Oh - They suck for capping free users

[BOP]

Tried Skye and a few others, wound up paying for Pandora. Been pretty satisfied overall. One of my complaints is that they stop playing after 5 hours, which means you can't tell it you're going to bed and that you'll get up at such-and-such a time so the music won't stop. And yes, I've suggested it to them, numerous times.

My other complaint is that while they do play a TON of music that is off the beaten track, for other stuff, they're no different than commercial radio. In other words, they play the same forking Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, and so on songs that you can hear on any so-called classic radio. For the love of GAWD, Pandora, I don't listen to you so I can hear Purple Haze, or one of the other standards by rock groups from the 70s and 80s! I can get that on 97.7 or 100.3. Bastids!

[Tilted (Premo)]

Originally Posted by BOP

Tried Skye and a few others, wound up paying for Pandora. Been pretty satisfied overall. One of my complaints is that they stop playing after 5 hours, which means you can't tell it you're going to bed and that you'll get up at such-and-such a time so the music won't stop. And yes, I've suggested it to them, numerous times.

My other complaint is that while they do play a TON of music that is off the beaten track, for other stuff, they're no different than commercial radio. In other words, they play the same forking Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, and so on songs that you can hear on any so-called classic radio. For the love of GAWD, Pandora, I don't listen to you so I can hear Purple Haze, or one of the other standards by rock groups from the 70s and 80s! I can get that on 97.7 or 100.3. Bastids!

It doesn't surprise me that they stop streaming after 5 hours. They're paying a royalty for every song played whether you listen or not - currently .12 cents per song for non-subscribers and .22 cents per song for subscribers (that's for the sound recording rights, not the underlying music works rights). That doesn't sound like much, but it adds up. For someone listening 5 hours a day, it could be $50+ per year.

On the other hand, music playing for more time could mean more advertising sold - and advertising is where they generate most of their revenue. So that policy could be driven by advertisers' concerns (i.e. they don't want to be buying advertising that no one is hearing because the music is allowed to play non-stop when no one is around).