Pandora got is start as a streaming music service that lets you create personalized radio stations by entering an artist or track and then listening to a string of related songs, giving each a thumbs up or down to tune the station to your tastes.
But earlier this year the company launched Pandora Premium, a service that competes with Spotify, Apple Music, and similar services from Google and Amazon by letting you pay $10 per month to listen to any song you want, any time time you want.
Don’t want to pay $10, but still want to be able to just listen to a specific song rather than starting a station? Now you can do that by putting up with a 15 second video ad. In fact, once you’re done watching that ad, you basically get to use Pandora Premium for free for a limited period of time.
Pandora says the new offering lets you continue listening to uninterrupted, ad-free music for a set period. It’s sort of like getting a free trial to Pandora Premium to decide if you want to pony up the monthly fee to become a subscriber.
But Engadget reports that Pandora isn’t just treating this as a free trial… it’s also a way to give free users access to a feature they wouldn’t otherwise have (the ability to play a specific song on-demand), while acknowledging that some people are never going to become monthly subscribers.
Or you could just go play the song on YouTube. It’s probably there too.
I just figured out that I can upload my own music to Google Music and stream them like these services. Plus Google Music is included with Binge On – so really, unless I’m bored with my own collection, I’m a happy camper.
I wonder what the time limit is. The other issue is that of course many people use the service someplace without a video screen.