Pandora mobile apps will put listening caps on free music streaming

Pandora, one of the most popular music streaming services on the web and mobile devices, has announced plans to cap how many hours of music fans can listen to without upgrading to a paid account. Citing rising royalty costs that Pandora must pay to music publishers, Pandora founder Tim Westergren revealed that the company will limit mobile users to 40 hours of streaming per month. Customers who go over that limit will have the option of paying 99-cents to get unlimited listening for the remainder of that month, switch to desktop listening, or upgrade to Pandora One for unlimited, ad-free listening for $3.99 per month.