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Pandora introduces 99-cent day pass

From the Cheapskate: Want ad-free streaming for your next party? You don't need a full month of Pandora One; now you can pay as you go.

Rick Broida Senior Editor
Rick Broida is the author of numerous books and thousands of reviews, features and blog posts. He writes CNET's popular Cheapskate blog and co-hosts Protocol 1: A Travelers Podcast (about the TV show Travelers). He lives in Michigan, where he previously owned two escape rooms (chronicled in the ebook "I Was a Middle-Aged Zombie").
Rick Broida

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Raise your hand if you've been in this situation: It's party time, so you queue up your favorite Pandora playlist. Five songs in, suddenly you're hearing commercials. How embarrassing!

The solution, of course, is to pony up for a Pandora One subscription, which affords, among other things, ad-free listening. But that costs $4.99 per month or $54.89 per year. If your budget can't handle that, or you just don't mind the ads most of the time, Pandora has a solution: the Day Pass.

For 99 cents, you get 24 hours of Pandora One, with all the benefits thereof: no commercials, more skips, fewer station pauses and higher-quality streaming (if you're listening via a Web browser).

The option debuts tomorrow, Sept. 10. Today, as part of the company's 10-year-anniversary Listener Love celebration, you can get the equivalent of a day pass free of charge. Just sign in to your Pandora account and start listening.

Going forward, you can purchase a pass via the Android or iOS Pandora app. Just head to Settings, tap Pandora One and choose One Day Pass. Each pass you buy will be billed as an in-app purchase (meaning via Apple or Google).

Are there times when you've wished for ad-free Pandora but didn't want to commit to a subscription? If so, do you think this is something you'd use?