Pandora’s Free Users Can Now Listen To On-Demand Music

Pandora is now allowing users on its free tier to access its on-demand music streaming service, but there’s a catch. Those who don’t pay $10 per month for Pandora Premium will now be able to listen to on-demand music from Pandora as long as they watch a 15 second pre-roll video ad. All users on the free tier as well as Pandora Plus users can now take advantage of this.

When users search for a specific song, album or playlist or have one recommended by the app, the will be able to unlock a Pandora Premium listening session after watching a video ad for 15 seconds.

This will let them enjoy music from their favorite artists without having to pay $10 for the unlimited on-demand streaming tier. During the session, users can listen to uninterrupted music in the background of their mobile device.

If users search for a new artist, album or song or click on a social media or email link for an album or song, they will have to watch another 15 second pre-roll video ad before unlocking another listening session.

Pandora has 72 million users on its free and Plus tiers. It will be hoping that this move convinces some of them to move to the Premium tier and pay $10 for the service. Spotify has had great success with its free tier converting users into paid subscribers, Pandora will hope to achieve something similar with this move.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: pandora