On the heels of a rumored confirmed price hike for Sirius XM, it looks like Pandora is also looking for a new revenue stream. Pandora is the online personal radio station - it plays only songs it's Music Genome Project determines you will like. An increase in royalty prices threatened to shut it down, but now, hopefully, advertisements will keep this amazing service afloat. From Pandora's Twitter site: So you know, we did not take on audio ads lightly. We try to be
extremely respectful of your listening experience, & promise to be
prudent.
At the moment, it appears that one advertisement will play the first 10 songs, then again about 20 songs later. Fifteen seconds of advertising for about 2 hours of music. Not a bad deal for a free service. Up until now, it tried image-based ads on the webpage. The Pandora app for iPhones was one of the most highly downloaded aps ever.
Don't like the ads? Pony up the $36/year membership fee, and your stream will be free of those annoying ads, plus you'll know that you're supporting a great and innovative service. —Leslie Shapiro
