Pandora to Lift 40-Hour Cap on Free Mobile Streaming Next Month

In February 2013, Pandora introduced a 40-hour monthly cap on free mobile streaming in order to balance increasing royalty costs. Now, the company has announced it would remove this limitation on Sept. 1

The decision to do so was announced by the company CFO Mike Herring, who explained the reasoning behind the move during an earnings call. The company has developed more precise techniques to control costs, and recent improvements in advertising allow Pandora to better monetize those extra listening hours.

"Our investment in advertising infrastructure and implementing smart levers such as reducing song skipping and limiting mobile listening have helped us drive monetization and manage content costs, as reflected by the increase in RPM and a decrease in content costs as a percentage of revenue," said Herring Read more...