Can't "Search and play anything" with Plus

[Shadb222]

Why do I still get commercials when I select a specific song to play? For paying you guys every month there's absolutely no reason I shouldn't be able to listen to whatever I want to anytime commercial-free. I'll simply switch paid music services if this can't be fixed.

Moderator edit: Edited title for clarity

[OldFrenchy]

This system is duplicitous. I have been a subscriber to Pandora for at least a decade, and now when I look for a specific artist I am offered a list of music, that if I chose, takes me to the 'premium' sign up.

Is this confusion deliberate? 

I am considering canceling my subscription as I am now seeing ads. I just want music. Your team has porked a good thing in the quest for a 'Premium' level, and mudding the waters for regular paying subscribers. 

[stxp32]

On the page that lists all of the plans, it states that with plus you can 'search and play anything'. When I do this, it makes me watch a short ad to get premium. Is this correct?

[AdamPandora]

@stxp32 I moved your post to this thread to keep the community tidy.

Check out the information provided in my post here for more clarification around this.

Thanks for being a part of the community! 

[heaton_t]

I have been with Pandora for more than a decade and I pay for Pandora Plus.  Unfortunately, the worst ads are still there.  Navigating around the ads fo9r Pandora Premium is aggravating.  How do I get them to stop?

[Owlcoolrule]

If you are Pandora Plus, you get as-free stations but not ad-free search & play. Basically, for $4.99, you can listen to all stations ad-free, but not whatever song you search for. If you upgrade to Pandora Premium  you will be able to enjoy ad-free search and play, and ad-free stations.

Hope this helped

[pswilliams0]

I've paid Pandora for years to have ad-free playing.  Whenever I really need pandora to be what I'm paying for, I get ads.  Today for instance, in the midst of Christmas hosting, I can't play a station without playing ads. Seems like pandora slips up when it is most likely to have the biggest audience... (Christmas season for instance...) 

Ridiculous.  Pandora, you need to provide me what I'm paying for ALL the time I'm paying for it.

Frustrated and embarrassed host of my Extended family 2019 Christmas gathering.

Philip

[Owlcoolrule]

Hi pswilliams0,

Thanks so much for reaching out to the community. My name is Owen, and I'd be happy to help. First of all, can you do me a favor and confirm that they are ads instead of artist messages? Pandora as a free bonus to its listeners provides them with artist messages from the artist(s) of the song. If you don't like these, you can turn them off through the settings page of your Pandora account. 

Second of all, I verified your Pandora account, and it looks like you are a Pandora Plus member. This gives you ad-free access to all of Pandora's stations, but not access to ad-free search & play. From your complaint though, it looks like you were listening to a station. Let me know if you started the station by playing a on-demand song. In that case, you would have started a free trial of Pandora Premium, but you would listen to ads to cover it. 

Thirdly, you could be using a different account. Be sure to check!

If you have any questions related to this, please reply to this comment string.

Always happy to help,

Owen

Pandora User

[Jboy123]

I'm a pandora plus member but I'm still seeing ads when I try to play music

[AdamPandora]

@heaton_t I moved your message to this thread as I provided some helpful information around why you may still be seeing ads in my post here.

Thanks for being a part of the community! 

[AdamPandora]

@pswilliams0 I moved your post to this thread to keep the community tidy.

Our support team has taken a look at your account and noticed that you enabled a free session of Pandora Premium by interacting with an ad. For more information around this, you can view my post here. 

Hope we continue to see you around the community! 🎧

[AdamPandora]

@Jboy123 Since you are running into a similar issue, I went ahead and merged your post with this existing thread.

For more information around why you are seeing ads when attempting to stream music on demand with your Pandora Plus subscription, you can view my post here. 

Thanks for being a part of the community! 

[musicbiz048]

This experience has turned to horrible frustration with endless prompts for Pandora Premium. My
Free Trial lasts for several minutes, after which the system fails to revert to playing music from my account, and plays some random popular **ahem** instead. No. I do not want premium, I simply want to play my music on Pandora Plus as I've been doing for twenty or so years. But now it's become just demanding, annoying, and unusable, so I have cancelled my subscription and will no longer be using it. I'm off to Amazon Prime Music. Sorry folks, but you've blown it with me.

[jhbfire]

I signed up for a year at Premium Plus. Am in the 30 day trial now. Every time I try to play an album I have to watch an ad and it only plays like 4 songs then quits. I thought paying for Plus eliminated the ads. Anyone seen or had this happen?

[TannerPandora]

Hi @musicbiz048 thank you for posting to community! I'm sorry for any frustration with your subscription, we appreciate your taking the time to write in your feedback. I've passed this information along to Pandora's products team. 

I've moved your message to an existing thread to help keep things organized. I recommend taking a look at @AdamPandora post in this thread. To view the entire post, please click here. 

It sounds like you're triggering a complimentary session of Pandora Premium. In the past, free listeners and Pandora Plus subscribers were only able to look for artists and tracks in order to create radio stations.

Basically, if you search for and select the name of an artist, or track, or album, you should be brought to a "backstage page" where you can either create a radio station or press play.

If you press play you indicate that you'd like to listen to that content right away (or "on-demand"). Since only Pandora Premium subscribers can listen on-demand, you will either see an ad for Pandora Premium, or be prompted to watch a video ad to unlock a complimentary session of Pandora Premium.

Keep in mind that upgrading to Pandora Premium or accepting a complimentary session of Pandora Premium is completely optional; you can close the ad and we'll create a station for you to listen to instead (if one is available). 

Sorry again for any frustrations that this may have caused. Thanks for posting to community! 🎧

[AdamPandora]

@jhbfire I moved your message to this thread to keep the community organized.

Check out my post here for more information on why you may still be hearing ads with your Pandora Plus subscription.

[MeghanAbbey]

How can you say in the same post that you "updated experience giving ability to listen to on demand without premium subscription." Then you follow it with "if you search and press play, that is on demand, which only premium subscribers can do." 
So which one is it??

While viewing my subscription options before purchasing, it showed both premium and plus abilities and they are both listed to do search and play. 

I feel like u swindle people. It's rodiculous. I'd rather play for YouTube music at the same price, but way more options available. At least they don't lie about the perks to your subscription. 👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻

[AdamPandora]

@MeghanAbbey I definitely understand your frustration with this and apologize for any confusion around the capabilities of your Pandora Plus subscription.

The ability to search and play music on demand (without first having to interact with an advertisement) is only an option with Pandora Premium.

While you can also search for specific tracks to be played on demand with your Pandora Plus subscription, you will be prompted to watch an advertisement first to initiate a free session of Pandora Premium (which will then allow you actually play the track that was searched).

With all this being said, your feedback around the wording of our current offerings is really helpful to us, and it means a lot that you care enough to speak up.

We keep close track of what listeners tell us – everything from feature requests to questions and complaints about every aspect of our service is carefully tracked and shared in a timely manner. Rest assured, your voice will be heard.

Hope we continue to see you around the community! 🎶

[bcato3000]

I recently signed up for the Pandora Plus account, but I still have to listen to adds when I play my "thumbs" list under my account.

Also, why can't I just listen to the list of my "thumbs" list consecutively? When the first song is over, it just goes back to my station.

[TannerPandora]

Hi @bcato3000 thanks for posting to community. I've moved your post to this exisiting thread because it sounds like you're having a similiar issue. 

I would recommend viewing @AdamPandora post here for more information on why you may be hearing ads.

In short, it sounds like you're triggering a complimentary session of Pandora Premium to listen to content on-demand, such as a song or album.

To listen to your Thumbsprint Station, you'll need to visit your station list from the My Collections tab. Scroll down until you see your Thumbsprint station, and press play. 

Hope this helped to explain. Thanks for bein part of community! 

[v3]

I just got Pandora Plus. I thought it would allow me to select any song or album and listen but it won't. I had a free trial where it would allow me to do that very thing. I think I've been conned. So which Pandora version allows me that freedom?