Skip to main content

Pandora scraps 40-hour mobile limit ahead of iTunes Radio launch

pandora 4.0
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Streaming radio service Pandora said Thursday it’s decided to do an about-face and from September scrap the 40-hour limit it imposed on mobile users just six months ago.

In a release announcing the news, the company said it was able to remove the cap “thanks to the rapid progress of its mobile advertising.”

According to research company eMarketer, the California-based radio service is currently the third largest generator of mobile ad revenue. That’s pretty impressive considering giants Google and Facebook are in the top two spots.

Rising royalty costs

Pandora introduced the cap at the beginning of March in a bid to deal with rising royalty costs. Pandora founder Tim Westergren said at the time the company’s per-track royalty rates had gone up by more than 25 percent since 2010 and are set to go up by a further 16 percent in the next two years.

As a result, the company decided a 40-hour-per-month mobile listening limit would allow it “to manage these escalating costs with minimal listener disruption.”

It’s believed the change only affected around 4 percent of its monthly active listeners, with company data suggesting the average user spends around 20 hours a month listening to music on the service.

Users coming close to hitting the 40-hour cap received a message outlining ways to continue using the service, including switching to a desktop or laptop, or paying a dollar for unlimited listening till the end of the month.

Long-term users of Pandora will be aware that this isn’t the first time the radio service has introduced a cap only to dump it a while later. In 2011 it scrapped a 40-hour limit for desktop users.

iTunes Radio

News of this latest 180 comes shortly before the US launch of Apple’s iTunes Radio, touted by some as a ‘Pandora killer’. With access to millions of potential users from the off via iTunes, Apple’s service could pose a threat to not just Pandora but also others in the space such as Spotify, Rdio and Google’s offering.

Pandora’s outgoing CEO Joe Kennedy sounds upbeat, however, telling AllThingsD on Thursday, “We’ve now been around for eight years. We’ve seen competitors large and small enter the market and, in some cases, exit the market. I’ve never seen an analysis that identifies an effect from any competitor….we don’t see the picture changing.”

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
AT&T just made it a lot easier to upgrade your phone
AT&T Storefront with logo.

Do you want to upgrade your phone more than once a year? What about three times a year? Are you on AT&T? If you answered yes to those questions, then AT&T’s new “Next Up Anytime” early upgrade program is made for you. With this add-on, you’ll be able to upgrade your phone three times a year for just $10 extra every month. It will be available starting July 16.

Currently, AT&T has its “Next Up” add-on, which has been available for the past several years. This program costs $6 extra per month and lets you upgrade by trading in your existing phone after at least half of it is paid off. But the new Next Up Anytime option gives you some more flexibility.

Read more
Motorola is selling unlocked smartphones for just $150 today
Someone holding the Moto G Stylus 5G (2024).

Have you been looking for phone deals but don’t want to spend a ton of money on flagship devices from Apple and Samsung? Have you ever considered investing in an unlocked Motorola? For a limited time, the company is offering a $100 markdown on the Motorola Moto G 5G. It can be yours for just $150, and your days and nights of phone-shopping will finally be over!

Why you should buy the Motorola Moto G 5G
Powered by the Snapdragon 480+ 5G CPU and 4GB of RAM, the Moto G delivers exceptional performance across the board. From UI navigation to apps, games, and camera functions, you can expect fast load times, next to no buffering, and smooth animations. You’ll also get up to 128GB of internal storage that you’ll be able to use for photos, videos, music, and any other mobile content you can store locally. 

Read more
The Nokia 3210 is the worst phone I’ve used in 2024
A person holding the Nokia 3210, showing the screen.

Where do I even start with the Nokia 3210? Not the original, which was one of the coolest phones to own back in a time when Star Wars: Episode 1 -- The Phantom Menace wasn’t even a thing, but the latest 2024 reissue that has come along to save us all from digital overload, the horror of social media, and the endless distraction that is the modern smartphone.

Except behind this facade of marketing-friendly do-goodery hides a weapon of torture, a device so foul that I’d rather sit through multiple showings of Jar Jar Binks and the gang hopelessly trying to bring back the magic of A New Hope than use it.
The Nokia 3210 really is that bad

Read more