With Apple Music barreling onto the scene, streaming music is hot right now. So hot, in fact, that it’s easy to forget that Apple Music, Spotify, and Deezer weren’t the first to stream tunes.
Radio giant Pandora, it turns out, is celebrating its 10-year anniversary today. And the company is ringing in its next decade in fitting fashion for an industry still wrestling with the impact of the internet: by giving away music for free.
For 24 hours on Wednesday, Pandora will encourage all listeners to enjoy its stations without having to hear any ads. “This is a thank you to each and every listener who has tuned in to Pandora over the past 10 years,” founder Tim Westergren said in a statement.
The anniversary promotion is well-timed. Pandora announced yesterday that, starting Thursday, users will be able to buy a one-day pass for 99 cents to listen for 24 hours without ads. This is in addition to Pandora's current free service with ads, or its ad-free service for $4.99 a month.
With nearly 80 million listeners each month, Pandora has become one of the most popular streaming services in the US. Unlike on-demand services, Pandora has built its business around creating user-driven radio stations based on songs, artists, or albums that listeners love.
But Pandora isn't the only service to tout its Internet radio services anymore. As Spotify and Apple Music have moved into radio themselves, Pandora may be hoping that it can steal back some of the spotlight. Unfortunately for Pandora, you may have heard that someone else is holding an event today—and when Apple talks, no one tends to listen to much of anything else.
