In non Satellite Radio news 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 service is accessible on the iPhone and BlackBerry, though certain
mobile devices on the AT&T network might require a separate
subscription, Pandora said.
To access Pandora One, click on the “upgrade” button on the Pandora
homepage. Subscriptions will be automatically renewed at the end of
the year unless you disable auto-renew.
Looks like some more competition for Sirius XM Radio!