photo: PourquoiPas
Pandora is once again offering discount packages as it attempts to compete with companies like Spotify and Apple Music.
Recently, the company launched its Family Plan, which lets as many as 6 family members have access to the company’s premium services for about $15 per month. Now, the company is offering students and people in the military a discount for highest Pandora Premium tier.
The student plan, which is limited to 4 years, costs $4.99 per month and includes a 2-month free trial. That’s 50% less than the normal, $9.99-per-month price point for the app’s premium tier.
The price for military personnel is a little higher. It costs $7.99 per month and includes a 2-month free trial as well. It’s available to people who have one of the following military statuses:
- Active duty soldiers
- Reservists
- Retirees
- Veterans
- Military family members
Both the student and military plans offer the following premium services:
- Ad-free listening experiences
- The searching and playing of any song, artist, album or podcast
- The creation and sharing of playlists
- Personalized playlists and stations
- Unlimited Skips
- Unlimited offline listening
- Higher-quality audio
- Other exclusive features
Music services offering discounts to students and military personnel is not exactly a new idea.
Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal already offer student plans for $4.99 per month, and Tidal already offers a military discount as well. What’s more, Spotify’s student plan includes Showtime and Hulu subscriptions in their $4.99 per month fee.
At least this puts Pandora in the same ballpark as its competitors, though it also drops the royalties paid to rights owners.
Pandora, once a relatively pure-play radio streaming service, launched their premium music streaming service in 2017. That followed the release of a number of streaming radio enhancements, with direct-to-label deals enabling far greater usage flexibility.
The move also followed a major pullout by Pandora from SoundExchange, forcing the agency’s royalty collections to plunge.