Pandora Limits Users To 40 Hours Per Month

Yesterday, webcasters reached a settlement with SoundExchange that saw rates rise, but not to the stratospheric levels feared. Most involved praised the agreement; Pandora among them.  To help absorb the higher costs, Pandora will cap listeners at 40 a month unless they pay 99 cents to unlock the service for the remainder of the month.  From their blog:

The revised royalties are quite high - higher in fact than any other form of radio. As a consequence, we will have to make an adjustment that will affect about 10% of our users who are our heaviest listeners. Specifically, we are going to begin limiting listening to 40 hours per month on the free version of Pandora.

In any given month, a listener who hits this limit can then opt for unlimited listening for the remainder of that month for just $0.99. In essence, we're asking our heaviest users to put a dollar (well, almost a dollar) in the tip jar in any month in which they listen over 40 hours. We hope this is relatively painless and affordable--the same price as a single song download. (Alternatively, they can upgrade to "Pandora One", our premium version which offers unlimited monthly listening in addition to its other benefits).