Pandora no longer completely free

AbyssWyrm writes: Today, I received an email (alternatively, see the blog) from Tim Westergren, the founder of Pandora, informing me that Pandora will no longer free for all users. Instead, it will be really cheap — for those with a free account, there will be a cap of 40 hours per month, and a user may pay a one-time fee of $0.99 to resume listening to music unlimited for a month. According to the blog entry, this will affect the top 10% of listeners.

Certainly not a bad deal considering the price, and I suspect that Pandora is one of few free internet resources whose users are loyal enough to pay a small fee to keep it afloat. Hopefully this does not become a slippery slope.