Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora radio, announced that the company will be placing a 40 hour per month limit on free mobile listening in hopes of moving Pandora's heaviest mobile listeners to paying subscribers. Westergren said it was a necessary move because ad revenue simply isn't enough to pay royalty fees. "Pandora One" subscriptions only cost $3.99 a year, that's roughly $36 a year for unlimited music, advertising free. More than 80% of Pandora music listeners access the site via mobile phone, making it "the most well-indexed major media company on mobile devices" according to AdAge.
It is inevitably clear that the future of free, unlimited online music streaming is coming to an end. With the music revenue industry now on the rise again, it is only a matter of time until these websites and applications practically force their users into paying some sort of fee in order to avoid advertisements. I am a subscriber to Spotify Premium, and I would love to see how the two compare. I am currently paying $9.99 for unlimited music that I can access through both my laptop and my mobile phone. Immediately when I found out about Spotify it was a no-brainer to make the switch from iTunes. I have used Pandora in the past and have had no issues with it (apart from the advertisements), but I have to say I personally prefer the easy setup and social interaction aspect of Spotify. It will be interesting to see what the future holds in terms of online music streaming.
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