Pandora To Celebrate 10 Years By Turning Off Ads For 24 Hours

Next week, Pandora will be a decade old. And it is planning to celebrate that momentous occasion by getting rid of commercials. Well, at least for one day. The music streaming service provider has announced that it will be turning off its ads on September 9th in order to commemorate the tenth anniversary of its release.

Subscribers of Pandora, specifically those who have been around since forever, will likely muse: “How quickly time flies.” Indeed, 2005 will seem like a pleasant distant memory to some (it was the year Carrie Underwood won American idol), or painful for others (Hurricane Katrina). For Pandora though, it is a momentous occasion, considering how far the company has gone in a span of a decade.

By bringing radio online to music lovers mostly based in the United States, Pandora was able to build an impressive listener base. But recently, more and more people (especially those from the younger generation) are going for other rival music streaming service providers such as Spotify and of course, the newest power player in town, Apple Music. These services offer listeners more control especially with regards to what songs they want to listen to. And they are starting to catch up to Pandora’s numbers -- Spotify, for instance, announced in June of this year that it has already breached the 75 millionth mark, gaining on Pandora’s almost 80 million strong active listeners. As for Apple Music, early in August of this year, Eddy Cue, the senior vice president of Internet software and services at Apple, has revealed via an interview that its music streaming subscription service has already attracted 11 million trial users in its first month.

Its rivals may be closing in, but it does not mean that Pandora can not stop and pause for a while to celebrate how much it has achieved. Thus, on Wednesday next week, the company will celebrate its 10th anniversary by shutting of ads for a full 24 hours, starting on midnight. Pandora will also be playing an audio message from Tim Westergren, the founder of the company, who will be expressing his gratitude to the millions of listeners who have helped Pandora grow in a span of ten years. 

Moreover, Pandora will also show images highlighting the fact that the zero ad day of programming is sponsored by Pandora One. For those not in the know, Pandora One is the company’s $5 per month subscription that cuts commercials from music streams while also allowing for more track skips.