Pandora has long been a favorite service of many music listeners, providing users with a free, streaming radio service over which the user exerts some degree of control.Rather than remaining solely dependent on advertisements, Pandora has decided to launch a premium downloadable application called Pandora One. For $36 a year, users will be able to stream music at 192 kbps and without advertisements. The price is very reasonable. But Pandora may have to offer users a bit more if this service is going to be successful.
The main problem is that Pandora is not offering enough to really compel users to pony up the $36 a year. All the features they list are nice, but the real nail in the coffin would be the ability to skip as many songs as uses wanted. Any seasoned Pandora veteran knows that, while you can skip over a song you really dislike, you can only do so for a set number of times per hour due to deals Pandora has made with content providers. Pandora, understandably, does not want to have to pay content providers more (although it would be surprising if some record label did not try to push for more by way of payments now that Pandora will have some level of increased revenue).
The other barrier to entry for Pandora One is that many of its main users cannot install software on their work computers. People who sit at a desk frequently listen to music while they work, and a lot of them who already use Pandora would probably be more than willing to pay for a higher quality listening experience. But with the ability to not have a web browser open while using Pandora One comes the complication that software frequently has to be installed by network administrators, and it does not seem likely that admins would be willing to install software for personal reasons only.
