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Pandora’s ad-supported listeners can now play the exact song they want
August 08, 2025
To clarify, you don’t have to pay to use Pandora, but choosing the free tier means you can only create personalized stations. Plus, which costs $5 each month, lets you create an unlimited number of stations and save four of those stations for offline listening, as well as eliminates all ads and allows for unlimited skips and replays. However, Pandora Plus doesn’t let you listen to search and play for any song — that is reserved for the $10-a-month Pandora Premium.
Talking toTechCrunch, Pandora says each on-demand listening session will “last longer than just a song or two,” though the service is testing sessions that last 15 minutes, 30 minutes, and an hour. The service also says that there are no ads during these sessions, but if you search for new content within the Pandora app or click a link for an album or track on an email or webpage, you will need to watch a video ad before it can be played.
Once an on-demand listening session is up, folks can opt to watch another video ad to continue. It’s an interesting strategy, one that is meant to convert folks into Premium users. According toTechCrunch, the majority of Pandora’s revenue comes from its ad business, so it makes sense for the service to rely on advertising to help make that conversion while.
According to Pandora chief product officer Chris Phillips, this strategy is beneficial for artists and advertisers alike:
Pandora says that on-demand listening sessions are currently rolling out to ad-supported and Plus listeners on iOS and Android. If you want to give Pandora a whirl, you can do so at the link below.
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