darthneo Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 I got an email from Tim Westergren - Founder, Pandora containing the following: Hi, it’s Tim - I hope this email finds you enjoying a great summer filled with music from Pandora. I’m writing with some important news. Please forgive the lengthy email; it requires some explaining. First, I want to let you know that we’ve reached a resolution to the calamitous Internet radio royalty ruling of 2007. After more than two precarious years, we are finally on safe ground with a long-term agreement for survivable royalty rates – thanks to the extraordinary efforts of our listeners who voiced an absolute avalanche of support for us on Capitol Hill. We are deeply thankful. While we did the best we could to lower the rates, we are going to 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 web. Because we have to pay royalty fees per song and per listener, it makes very heavy listeners hard to support on advertising alone. Most listeners will never hit this cap, but it seems that you might. We hate the idea of capping anyone's usage, so we've been working to devise an alternative for listeners like you. We've come up with two solutions and we hope that one of them will work for you: * Your first option is to continue listening just as you have been and, if and when you reach the 40 hour limit in a given month, to pay $0.99 for an unlimited number of hours for the rest of that month. This isn't a subscription. We'll charge your credit card for just that one month and you'll be able to keep listening as much as you'd like for the remainder of the month. We hope this is relatively painless and affordable - the same price as a single song download. * Your second option is to upgrade to our premium version called Pandora One. Pandora One costs $36 per year. In addition to unlimited monthly listening and no advertising, Pandora One offers very high quality 192 Kbps streams, an elegant desktop application that eliminates the need for a browser, personalized skins for the Pandora player, and a number of other features: http://www.pandora.com/pandora_one. If neither of these options works for you, I hope you'll keep listening to the free version - 40 hours each month will go a long way, especially if you're really careful about hitting pause when you’re not listening. We’ll be sure to let you know if you start getting close to the limit, and we’ve created a counter you can access to see how many hours you’ve already used each month. We’ll be implementing this change starting this month (July), I’d welcome your feedback and suggestions. The combination of our usage patterns and the "per song per listener" royalty cost creates a financial reality that we can't ignore...but we very much want you to continue listening for years to come. Please don't hesitate to email me back with your thoughts. Sincerely, tim_signature.jpg Tim Founder just thought i'd post that here, as i think only users that listen to pandora more then 40 hours a month got the email... i probably listen to 40 hours of pandora in 3 or 4 days =( Heres the email on pandora.com: http://broadcaster.pandora.com/dm?id=B7402...50542759970026E Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pichet Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 I knew it! By the time there's a "ready made" Linux LiveCD for this i'm afraid it won't do much because there won't be much left to do!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZigZagJoe Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 I knew it! By the time there's a "ready made" Linux LiveCD for this i'm afraid it won't do much because there won't be much left to do!!! just curious, why do you need a livecd so much? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pichet Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 Euh... "So much"? I joined this forum at the end of October 2006... My point is that one can't go wrong with a LiveCD once it's working: it's just a matter of "burning" it or even better, let use a USB drive! Right now there are too many details involved in case of a failure so it would be nice to start from some known working common ground. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZigZagJoe Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Euh... "So much"? I joined this forum at the end of October 2006... My point is that one can't go wrong with a LiveCD once it's working: it's just a matter of "burning" it or even better, let use a USB drive! Right now there are too many details involved in case of a failure so it would be nice to start from some known working common ground. Eh. I'd rather use the desktop OS i'm using rather than startup a CD _just_ for burning. Also, if you had to do any different config (say you need to use Tor) it'd be the same on a livecd as it would normal OS. Still gotta set it up/configure it etc. Otherwise, it's extract a zip file and off you go. Seems easier. Easier still if you use pre-configured firefox portable. If you really want a livecd now, look into bartpe, stick .net 2.0 or so on it and just as good. It's not linux, but at least it'd work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kon-aitor Posted July 25, 2009 Share Posted July 25, 2009 I don't like that they limited the service to 40 hours, but if you take a step back, they are essential offering unlimited listening for 1 dollar a month. I think their yearly plans are very reasonable, especially compared to services like Napster and I would totally pay it if they did not have a free version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iggy67 Posted July 27, 2009 Share Posted July 27, 2009 I have that problem beat. Just don't log in to your account an listen as a guest. Every time you restart your computer your IP changes, and they think it's a new person every time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZigZagJoe Posted July 30, 2009 Share Posted July 30, 2009 I have that problem beat. Just don't log in to your account an listen as a guest. Every time you restart your computer your IP changes, and they think it's a new person every time. *modem, not pc,, and only if you have a service that works like that. My ISP uses psuedo-static ips, reset my modem all i want i'll keep the same one for a while (i've had the same ip for 3 years, it just recently changed) If you encounter it telling you are out of listening time while using S2, take a picture of the Sproxy screen and post a log here. I'm fairly sure it can be beat with little effort. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
operat0r_001 Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 lol ... torrent noobs.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KGONEPOSTL Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 They have to pay for royalties so they can play music that doesn't suck and not break the law Don't like it? Go pro for 40 bucks a year cheapass! Gives you 192kbs, desktop app, the works as well. lol ... torrent noobs.. Hey man, I use usenet a lot, AND I MEAN A LOT! I don't know what else there could possibly be that's so great besides usenet. What are you guys using these days to aquire legal files? Anyway, I'm gonna call you out on that one. If you understand how bit torrent works and how to stay more safe than you'll max out your connection all the time It's all about the ratios baby! There's nothing wrong with 5 seeders and 10 leechers. You just have to understand how bit torrent works and weigh out the torrent by ascending by seeders and see if it's an appropriate ratio with the seed/leech ratio. That and the understandings of a basic household router and porting. GL, HF, GG Btw operator, what are you using that's so 1337 anyway? I'm genuinely curious Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KGONEPOSTL Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 I'm kinda pissed at pandora at the same time. Every song I'd ever want to here. They even got kool keith/DR DOOM/ Doctor octagon, del the funky homosapian and so many others you can't find. I understand the mission BUT IS THERE ANYWAY TO JUST STICK TO ONE ARTIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlajons Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 This isn't cool..Why did they limit the hours to users..Sometimes downloading a song could last for hours..Tsk3x! Regards, carlajons Pret voiture Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
romulusdgr8 Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Its interesting to note that pandora will only charge you approx. $1 for any additional hours over 40. In a sense, this option would make way more sense than the $36 subscription a year. the subscription costs you $3 a month, and what do you get for it? a fancy application and no ads. In the case you do go over 40 hours just pay the extra buck. If you have to do this the entire year, you'll only end up paying $12 a year as opposed to the $36 for the subscription. Are all the frills really worth a potential $2 a month? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.