First Spotify, now Pandora wants to reward listeners with ad-free music for engaging with brands

Internet radio streaming service Pandora has announced a new Sponsored Listening offering, letting brands give listeners a full hour of ad-free beats in exchange for a little engagement.

Available in the US, Australia and New Zealand, Pandora serves up music from across a multitude of genres for free, though you can cough up $4.99/month to remove the ads.

With Sponsored Listening, you’ll be asked to watch a short video, visit a brand’s website or engage in another similar ‘interaction’. You’ll immediately be granted 60-minutes of uninterrupted listening, though the advertiser’s brand will still be visible on-screen throughout the session.

Time is money

This echoes a similar announcement made by Spotify last month, when it revealed it’s introducing a couple of new video ad products. One of those was ‘Sponsored Sessions’ which is aimed specifically at mobile users, letting them opt-in to view short videos in return for 30-minutes of ad-free tunes.

Pandora has been trialing this product already, but now it’s opening things up to a wider (but still limited) audience with a handful of brands, which include Fox and Sony.

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Pandora has dabbled in the past with similar initiatives, including Sponsored Trials, which gives you free access to the ad-free ‘Pandora One’ service for seven days. Now, it’s looking to take things a step further by seeking deeper engagement with the listener, though of course it’s far from certain that they’ll have the listener’s full, undivided attention.

➤ Are You Listening? | Pandora Blog