

Pandora hits 20 million registered users - vaksel
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/19/pandora-hits-20-million-registered-users-via-twitter/

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mhartl
I hope Pandora realizes how much people love them. It would be such a tragedy
if they died. I'm sure they've considered it, but it seems to me that a
freemium model would work much better than their current ad-supported service:
something like a few free hours of music a day, and unlimited music for
$10/month. I for one would be happy to pony up the cash---especially if it
meant that Pandora would survive.

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chez17
I agree. Pandora has literally changed my life. I am a musician as well as a
coder, but I have recently fell in love with jazz fusion. Billy Cobham, Chick
Corea, Tribel Tech, etc... but I don't have a friend who is really in to jazz
that would be my portal into this world. With Pandora I can just type in
"Billy Cobham" and have a whole new world of music that I want to hear come
right to me. This has increased my practising both in time and quality. I just
has opened a ton of doors to me. I would happily support them because their
service is that good.

What is sad is that because their service is that good, the radio lobby in
America is after it, big time. They hate losing any control they have over the
current state of music and Pandora is a "threat" to them. If it's 10, 20 or 50
years, soon wireless will be everywhere and there will be no need for them.
They know this and they will fight it. Hopefully we can win this one.

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aswanson
_but I have recently fell in love with jazz fusion. Billy Cobham, Chick Corea,
Tribel Tech, etc..._

Amen. Pandora...machine learning gone right.

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petercooper
I was an early user of Pandora and signed up and enjoyed it too until they
dumped a big firewall around the US. They'd be way over 20 million if it
weren't for arcane laws preventing the rest of the free world enjoying their
awesome service.

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aswanson
Is that all of Europe or selected countries?

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petercooper
I suspect all. If I go to Pandora.com it says this (amongst other stuff):

 _We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can
no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S. We
will continue to work diligently to realize the vision of a truly global
Pandora, but for the time being we are required to restrict its use. We are
very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative._

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aswanson
I wonder why. Is the music market outside the US _that_ much more lucrative
that they restrict it?

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baltoo
It could very well be the single biggest one. In europe they'd probably need
deals for each and every country. (Which require money and time.) The same
would go for the rest of the world.

(Also, the farther away from American culture the less precise their
classification base would get with regards to the local culture's. Think of
Chinese music - which sounds atonal to a lot of westeners.)

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redorb
I know they have a $36/yr pro account, but I think it should go in increments
of hours listened 10 hours free per month .50 per an aditional hour up to 10$
then .20 an hour after that with a cap at $30 month

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jim-greer
Quantcast says they have 8.2M monthly active users in the US. That's really
impressive...

<http://www.quantcast.com/pandora.com>

