Internet radio station Pandora on Wednesday introduced a revamped version of its premium service, now dubbed Pandora One.
The subscription service will cost $36/year and will include an ad-free listening experience, as well as a desktop application, increased skipping privileges, and higher quality streaming.
“Pandora One is completely free of any sort of advertising: no audio ads, no visual ads. It's just you and your music," Tom Conrad, Pandora's chief technology officer, wrote in a blog post.
Pandora's collection of streaming music is available for free on its Website, but includes advertisements on the site and between songs. The non-subscription service also limits the number of times you can skip songs to 12 skips per day. Due to licensing constraints, Pandora cannot provide unlimited skipping, but One will allow for six skips per hour, per station, Conrad wrote. Rival Slacker allows unlimited skips for $3.99 per month.
One also includes an Adobe Air-based desktop application for those who do not want to keep a browser window open all day. “Control playback from the Windows taskbar or the Macintosh dock. Get popup alerts when a new song starts to play," Conrad wrote.
In addition, Pandora promises 192 kilobits per second audio, which Conrad touted as the “highest quality streaming experience on the Internet."
One also includes eight custom skins, a mini browser-based player, and five hours of listening time before the service times out.
Prior to Pandora One, the only benefit of a subscription service was the ability to skip ads. Users who already signed up for the premium service will be automatically upgraded to Pandora One, Conrad said.
The subscription service will cost $36/year and will include an ad-free listening experience, as well as a desktop application, increased skipping privileges, and higher quality streaming.
“Pandora One is completely free of any sort of advertising: no audio ads, no visual ads. It's just you and your music," Tom Conrad, Pandora's chief technology officer, wrote in a blog post.
Pandora's collection of streaming music is available for free on its Website, but includes advertisements on the site and between songs. The non-subscription service also limits the number of times you can skip songs to 12 skips per day. Due to licensing constraints, Pandora cannot provide unlimited skipping, but One will allow for six skips per hour, per station, Conrad wrote. Rival Slacker allows unlimited skips for $3.99 per month.
One also includes an Adobe Air-based desktop application for those who do not want to keep a browser window open all day. “Control playback from the Windows taskbar or the Macintosh dock. Get popup alerts when a new song starts to play," Conrad wrote.
In addition, Pandora promises 192 kilobits per second audio, which Conrad touted as the “highest quality streaming experience on the Internet."
One also includes eight custom skins, a mini browser-based player, and five hours of listening time before the service times out.
Prior to Pandora One, the only benefit of a subscription service was the ability to skip ads. Users who already signed up for the premium service will be automatically upgraded to Pandora One, Conrad said.
