Thursday, December 18, 2008

Pandora Goes Free On Sprint

Oakland-based Internet radio service Pandora is opening up its service on Sprint, saying Thursday that it is eliminating its current $2.99 a month subscription fee for its service on the mobile phone carrier. Pandora said that the new, free service will instead be supported by audio advertising, and will be available to all Sprint customers with compatible handsets and a Sprint data plan. Sprint has been carrying the mobile version of Pandora since May of 2007. Pandora also said it is now supporting certain Windows Mobile handsets with the free version. Pandora operates a personal Internet radio station, where users can personalize the kind of music and artists they like to listen to, and music and similar music is streamed via the web or mobile to a user. The service uses ratings by users and analysis of music to find recording that a user might like.