Pandora Nails it: Pay a Premium for the Experience

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pandora_oneWhen we first started talking about AIR I envisioned it as a way for web application developers to create a premium experience around their content. Ideally that premium experience would be worth the money and AIR would help with the “freemium” models out there. It looks like that’s exactly what Pandora is doing with Pandora One. The new service costs $36 a year and you get not only higher quality streaming with no advertisements but also the option to install an Adobe AIR-based desktop application so you can break out of the browser.

AIR was never meant to replace web applications or the browser. It was created so that web developers could take their skills and build web-centric desktop applications. The Pandora One model is a perfect example of why that can be so beneficial. Taking a lot of the same code, the same developer skills, and the Pandora brand they’re able to very quickly provide a premium experience on the desktop that people are willing to pay for.

Awesome move by Pandora.

Related posts:

  1. Pandora Releases an AIR Application
  2. Finetune – Pandora and Last.fm Except Multiplied by a Million
  3. Picnik Opens Up – Premium Features Are Free
  4. Differences Between Silverlight Out of Browser Experience and AIR
  5. Does Experience Really Matter?
  • Daniel Larsen

    Ack! You used to be able to get the AIR app for free from http://www.pandora.com/desktop . But it looks like they just took that down in favor of the updated one that you have to pay for. Grrr….. (I think I still have the old .air file…I hope)