Pandora has confirmed plans to launch a new 1-day pass that’ll provide users with 24 hours of ad-free listening for around $0.99. Unveiled to investors this week, the option is expected to be available “later this year.”
Paying for Pandora by the day seems like an expensive way to enjoy the service, but if you don’t listen all that often — or you don’t mind listening to ads most of the time – it could work out to be cheaper than a $4.99 monthly subscription.
It’s also ideal for those who just want to ditch the ads for a limited time in the event of a party or other social gathering.
“Pandora is committed to delivering an effortless, personalized experience and we recognize some consumers may want an ad-free experience but don’t necessarily want to commit to a subscription,” Pandora explained to GigaOM.
“This offering will allow consumers to choose and explore what is right for them or suits a particular event or experience. Pricing and exact timing are yet to be determined but we expect it to be available later this year.”
In addition to removing ads, a Pandora subscription provides users with 192 kbps playback on the web — which is higher than the 64 kbps bit rate you get for free – and more skips per day.
Pandora also revealed that it is considering a 3-day pass as well, but for now, only the 1-day option has been confirmed. Slides shown to investors stated a price tag of $0.99 for this, but Pandora says it will experiment with pricing.
Source: GigaOM
