Anthony Ha, a writer at TechCrunch who covers media and advertising, just yesterday explained Pandora’s plan to cap users mobile monthly limit in his article Pandora Resurrects Its 40-Hour (Monthly) Limit On Free Music, But This Time It’s Capping Mobile Usage. Prior to September 2011 Pandora had a 40 hour listening cap for its users. Due to increasing per-track royalty costs Pandora plans to reinstate this cap on mobile devices. They claim this will only effect 4% of its mobile users. After the cap is reached on a mobile device users will be able to pay 99 cents for unlimited music on the device for the rest of the month or make a one time purchase of Pandora One.
Is this a smart move for Pandora? Spotify
does not offer a free mobile service but its desktop service seems to be many users preference over Pandora. 4% of users does not seem like a large number but in an industry with multiple other options 4% is a large number of customer to upset.
Although Pandora is a tough position of needing to make more money I do not think reverting back to old ways is the best option. In order to charge people for their mobile service I believe that Pandora needs to offer something more than its free service already offers. Just saying you have listened to your cap of music is not a great way to build lasting customer relationships.
3 Responses to “Pandora: Going Back To Its Old Ways”
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This does seem like a pretty puzzling move for Pandora, especially (as you say) in light of Spotify’s success. In fact, the 40 hour cap is already pretty irksome–especially because it’s for a month! (I just tried to do some fast math about that, and failed. Goodness gracious.) But that really isn’t much, especially considering the fact that some offices may want to use Pandora during the workday. Maybe Pandora could make certain exceptions in lieu of other forms of “payment” for offices or people who use the service often. It certainly does seem like a strange move.
This is definitely interesting on Pandora’s part. Although I still prefer Pandora to Spotify it seems evident that Pandora needs to come up with something new and I don’t think limiting listening time is it. I will be curious to see how much this negatively affects Pandora.
I agree. Pandora really must become more innovative in its pricing. The one thing it has over Spotify right now is free mobile listening. I do not think it can afford to upset customers with listening caps (even if that number is just 4%). I believe that Pandora needs to concentrate on this mobile aspect and find beneficial features that enhance the user experience for which they can then charge for.