Newsletter
Pandora is rumored to be looking at entering the on-demand music streaming market, and will reportedly kick things off by adding two new paid tier options to its service as early as next month, expanding its plan options to include the free service plan, Pandora One which includes unlimited skips and no ads, the One Day Pass option, and Pandora’s new options rumored to be launching soon which will both be monthly subscriptions according to The Wall Street Journal.
While having more options available to consumers who are looking to either switch to a new music streaming service or try one out for the first time is a good thing for Pandora, there are currently no details on what the two new plan options will cost. In a market which is already congested with several options, Pandora will need to ensure that what they’re offering is either going to beat out other services on price if not at least match them, offer something unique enough to set their new paid options apart, or do both, which would ultimately be the best outcome as it would likely make Pandora’s options hard to pass up. Without any details on what the plans will offer or what they will cost subscribers every month, it will be difficult to determine how much of a shot they have at scooping up new users. Of course, even if they don’t grab many actual “new” users, it’s possible that these new plans could at the very least convert existing users from the free option to paying for a plan every month.
While no terms have been disclosed on any of Pandora’s plans, it’s being reported that they are close to reaching deals with multiple major record companies. So far no agreements have been made and the deals with these record companies aren’t yet final, but if the deal is successful, it’s said that the deal would allow Pandora to offer these new streaming service plans in the U.S. as well as other regions internationally which would include new global markets that it has yet to penetrate. Having said that, a launch of the new services would be limited to English-speaking countries first, and then follow up with a release in other countries which speak a different language, although no mention was made of which countries those might be.