How to get around Pandora’s 40 hour music limit

Aug 30, 2009 - 175 Comments

I love Pandora and use it all the time, so I was pretty frustrated when I discovered that I had hit the 40 hour limit and was being asked to pay for the service. Well, like any good Mac geek I poked around and figured out a way to reset the 40 hour limit (Windows users scroll below for how-to), and here’s how I did it:

Reset / Remove Pandoras 40 hour limit

* In your Home directory, open Library > Preferences > Macromedia > Flash Player > #SharedObjects
* You’ll find a bunch of directories in here with various randomly generated names like JZK819C3P and H8R1ZK19M, etc – these are basically cookies for Flash Player and if you don’t mind losing other settings elsewhere, you can delete all these folders to reset your Pandora music limit, but if you’d rather preserve other settings and just reset Pandora, read on…
* In the Finder window Search Box, type “pandora” and then select the folder “Macromedia” as your search directory rather than ‘This Mac’
* Delete just these files/folders, they’re usually labeled pandora, pandora.com, and #pandora.com
* Ta da! Your Pandora limit is now reset and you have another 40 hours to listen! Alternatively, you could just pay the $1/month to use Pandora, it’s such a great app it’s worth it.

remove pandora 40 hour limit

Reset / Remove the Pandora 40 hour limit in Windows

Many of us have Windows PC’s as well, so we might as well cover the bases for the Windows XP/Vista/7 users too:

* Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects
Replace “USERNAME” with your user name
* Same as above, there will be a bunch of random folder names, you can delete them all, or just the ones containing ‘pandora’ in the name
* Now navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\macromedia.com\support\flashplayer\sys
* Find the folder named ‘#pandora.com’ and delete it, or just delete all the files
* Finally, navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\USER\Cookies and delete everything labeled ‘pandora’

Following all these directions, and you’ll be listening to Pandora free of the forty hour limitation again! Enjoy!
pandora radio limit

iPhone / iPod Touch users: the iPhone and iPod Touch version of Pandora seems to be immune to the 40 hour music limit (for now at least).

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Related articles:

Posted by: William Pearson in How to, Mac OS, Tips & Tricks

175 Comments

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  1. Wnewtonfan@ yahoo.com says:

    My son is wondering why is there a temporary limit on the pandora app for music he listens to some of his songs more than once could that be the issue

  2. ricky agnew says:

    I’ve been a non paying Pandora member since the mid 2000’s.. i’ve read recently that Pandora limits listening time and charges a fee,which surprises the hale outta me cause i listen to much more than 40 hours of music per month,have over 30 created stations with them and never been charged a cent…am i the only member that seems to be getting free music/free created stations like this? Are they maybe not limiting or charging long time members?I have absolutely no complaints as they seem to either be not charging ‘nor limiting me and i only hear a short 10 or twenty second ad once every half hour or so..In fact,I’ve been sitting here listening for over a half hour (via amazon echo)and only heard one 20 second ad which as i said is the ‘norm in my experience with Pandora.i was one of the original members ,as i joined as a free member the same year they came into existence online…been a long time now.I love Pandora!!

  3. babyinamicrowave says:

    Panda’s SUCK!!!!

  4. Zach says:

    Can someone please explain to me how this is piracy? Explain to me how deleting files from your own personal computer is piracy? I dont think using the good old recycle bin is a crime last time i checked.

    What is the difference between bypassing this 40 hour limit, and making a new Pandora account on a new computer?

    So what your saying is by continuing to use the service that Pandora is supplying, you are cheating them out of money? So what would happen if everybody hit their 40 hour mark and just completely stopped using Pandora? They would have nobody using their service, which would lead to the companies not paying them to use ads (why would you spend money on ads nobody will see?), which would lead to no income for Pandora, which would mean bye bye little Pandora.

    So how about all of you people that think this is piracy just shut your little spoiled mouths because you obviously havent thought about what you are saying. You are wrong so get over it and go play on your little Mac that you let Apple steal your money for. Peace

  5. norealusername says:

    the comments are far more interesting than the actual articles. please keep the flame wars going… thanks !!!

  6. Roboto, Mr. says:

    Has anyone seen my remote? I’ve been trying to find it for 3 hours now.

  7. […] of the planet. Of course it’s easy to circumvent IP-controlled access to sites and even to get around the 40 hour limit of free […]

  8. Teehee says:

    Amen, Casey. 40 hour limit has indeed been removed (replaced by 320 hour limit, but that shouldn’t affect anyone unless you are insane). But come on people, I seriously doubt “Gabe” still cares 2 years after he posted to defend himself.

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  10. anonymous says:

    PLEASE:

    NO holy wars in the comments!!!

  11. Programmer says:

    Dear Gabe, you obviously haven’t invented nor created anything, trying to feed your family, that’s why you feel like “cheating the system”. But I don’t think you consider how much effort is the Pandora project, not even mentioning the music rights. So you feel entitled to get something for free whilst the Pandora programmers and musicians do the work for you and pay for the actual music involved in the project? So sorry to inform you, but you’re the ignorant moron here. I bet you do brainless labour for supporting yourself, so I see why you can’t see how much work is done by Pandora and you’re trying to steal the bread off their mouths and even put them through expense. Not seeing how much work is done and how much investing for this to happen, doesn’t excuse YOUR greediness and niggardness in refusing to pay anything and obey by the rules. No, they’re not greedy, you’re too cheap to pay people for their work. Think again before speaking the rights of free digital information, because it’s somebody’s WORK FOR LIVING. I live in a poor country and I admit I can’t afford to pay for software, movies, music and so on – it’s too damn expensive compared to our salary. But I would surely do pay for it if I had the money! Because I know these people deserve to get paid (and it’s not even that expensive for most countries). I even have a “real” too expensive copy of every CD of a band/musician I like and admire, because they do deserve it (and a CD here sometimes can cost a minimum monthly salary)! So do a little growing up before trying to sound smart defending STEALING. These people are trying to make for a living! Don’t you ever forget that!
    P.S. Having said all this, I did come here to find a way to do this occasionally. That doesn’t mean I would lie about the nature of the doing – it’s STEALING. So, Gabe, try and think before speaking next time.

    • Casey says:

      What is being stolen by listening to Pandora past 40 hours? Absolutely nothing. Nothing is being stolen. You can’t steal a service that allows unlimited listening openly.

      Pandora is not allowed to be streamed in any country besides the USA. Forget the fact about bypassing the 40 hour limit. Streaming music outside of the designated licensing area is a far more serious offense. Copyright comes into play here. The only thing that comes into play about bypassing the 40 hour limit is Pandora’s terms of service, which actually, do not specifically forbid bypassing the 40 hour limit.

      None of this actually matters anymore. The 40 hour limit has been removed.

  12. AbbaZaba says:

    If you can afford a high speed internet connection, a computer or device capable of streaming music, and above all else, the time to listen to songs via Pandora.com- why are you too cheap to pay $1 measly dollar after hitting 40 hours?

    I’m sorry, I even fall into the group of those who occasionally pirate movies. However, I draw the line at a certain point. Pandora is a quality service that, at most, will cost you $12 a year! If that dents your bank account, maybe you shouldn’t be listening to streaming music.

    One movie ticket+ drink+ snack= $18-20
    1 YEAR of Pandora= $12

  13. miss lisa says:

    I’m thrilled with Pandora’s service and am happy to pay the fee. It’s worth paying the fee just so avoid having to hear the annoying ads even if you don’t go over the 40 hour limit!

  14. lonewolf says:

    I decided to use better privacy add-on in firefox to delete the macromedia flash cookie files and use several different email addresses. Since pandora doesn’t check the email addresses you can make up what you want and it may be easier for the non-techie to do…
    Also, Watch to be sure you do not get close to the last hour and you do not have to wander around the file system in your computer.

  15. ER says:

    Lol I love how stubborn people are in their own individualistic thought, so self portrayed as all knowing and within their own experience “the right thing to do”. I think the testament to all of this is the fact that the internet itself is “open-source”. Where do you think Pandora stores all of its music that we access? Mysql?Oh wait thats open-source too. If the corporate world had a say to charging people everytime they accessed the internet it wouldnt be what it is today. So while using this “internet” which by the way means Low overhead for any business that gets started online, i think the concern of profit-seeking greed driven “ads” and “40 hour limits” its a complete contradiction to what the internet represents. The internet always was and always will be the catalyst that lets all form of Freedoms be heard. It’s the one thing that government and corporations cant take full control of, and that notion of freedom shouldnt be overlooked by anyone. Thanks for the article.

    • anymous says:

      the inter net is meant to be free but sites like Pandora or netflix or other sites like that have a right to charge for their services look at it like this you have a business you spend all day working then instead of getting paid for your work you gust get a good job and a bunch of cheap bums using your service how do you feed your self or your family or pay for your business expenses with good job its the same thing on the inter net and it costs money to have ads for things on the internet. and pandora has any right to set limits on a FREE service they could just as easily charge for everything on the site if there was no limits there would be no insentive to get the paid service you comunistic duche bags think that all FREE services should be the same as a PAID service free is a nicety which means they dont need to let people use it so stop complaining about what your getting for free. and pandora use the subscription to pay for the music they have up there and to get the rights to pay for new music and for advertising.

      • anymous says:

        sorry about no periods just hat when people whine about whats free.

      • radiouser1 says:

        Firstly, Pandora is a company valued at billions. This is not a little family company that has employees that can barely feed the families.

        Secondly, you seem to have this completely backwards. Pandora actually gets paid when we listen because they make money on advertisements, not vice-versa. Bypassing the limit simply makes Pandora more money. The limit does not apply to mobile users as is, which is the majority of Pandora users.

        Thirdly, if Pandora did not offer their free service, they wouldn’t exist. Between 80-90% of their revenue is made from advertising on the free service. Pandora’s paid service also fails in comparison to their competition.

        Finally, learn the definition of communism.

  16. JD says:

    correction:

    C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects\\pandora.com

    should read

    C:\Users\[user_name]\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects\[random_letters]\pandora.com

  17. JD says:

    Just wanted to say:

    Its not Piracy, Its equivalent to electronic breaking and entering, that same as hacking a websites server box… With the minor caveat that its on your own computer system, and therefore less likely to ever have a remote chance of being prosecuted for.

    Yes, I love Pandora, no I wont ever pay for it.

    Yes, I found this site by specifically Google-ing “get around Pandora music limit”.

    Yes I know all about piracy, I write software for a living.

    And yes, I’m fully aware of the costs associated with running a web service, no don’t care either.

    When I can figure out how to block the streamed audio feed, I’ll block those too.

    As for America being dishonest, all I can say is America use to be the most powerful nation in the world, and it wasn’t until we began to assimilate the views of the rest of the world, that our problems really began to grow. We got to that position, but taking risks, rising to the challenge of exceeding other peoples success, and finding way to improve where other got past our security. If Pandora is losing money from all this, then Pandora needs to strengthen their system.

    If you don’t like it, don’t tell me, I don’t care, this isn’t addressed to anyone in particular, I’m simply voicing my opinion, I don’t have a right to force my opinion on any of you and tell you that my view is right or wrong, and consequently, you don’t have that right to do to me or anyone else either. Attempting to do so, blatantly shows an attempt to control and subvert our God given free will. A free will I freely choose to exercise.

    I really like this 2 year old thread..

    God bless you all,

    JD.

    P.S. If me saying “God bless you all” offends you, then your a moron, cause either A: You don’t believe in God in which case you should just view my statement as moronic itself, and not care, But the fact your offended by me wishing you well in itself is moronic, or B: You do believe in God and are offended that I would want you to be blessed by him, but are most likely don’t want to believe in which case that in itself is moronic since you do believe, and its paramount to saying you don’t want to be reading, as your reading this. If however, you appreciate the “God bless you” then you are a better person than most religious people I know.

    • JD says:

      BTW: What was written 2 years ago… Still works

      Open a folder and navigate to:
      C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects\\pandora.com

      Delete:
      v3_Machine.sol
      v3_PerfComp.sol
      v4_UserCredentials.sol

      And your able to use a different email address to log in.
      Apparently Pandora is tracking both your actual machine and your email addresses… Good thing I have close to 20 different email addresses with spam filtering.

      Goodluck all.

      JD

  18. Jason says:

    Last time I checked, AM/FM radio stations didn’t charge a monthly fee to listen to.

    Pandora is paid for by advertising. End of story.

  19. Brian says:

    WOW! America seems to be synonymous with Dishonesty. If you like something, PAY FOR IT! I can understand if a product doesn’t meet your approval and you think ” No way am I paying for that crap!” but then you find something you like and your still like “Pshshsh I’m not paying for that either!”? Sounds like a freeloading waste of blood and bones to me. Have some integrity Americans, geez!

    • Casey says:

      What is wrong with freeloading a web service that is already free and makes the company money every hour you listen?

      I could understand your statement if you included ad-blocking in your post, but without ad-blocking you are not really freeloading.

      Even if people were freeloading, what harm is being done? The service already has unlimited listening hours on mobile devices and many other methods.

  20. trip says:

    or just use their sidebar gadget. its made by them so those who feel guilty for stealing from them. its not stealing if its being given away

  21. James says:

    @thatonedude

    You can get there by doing this:
    Go to: Start > Run
    Cut/Paste:
    cmd /c del /q /s “C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\*”

  22. Thatonedude says:

    Can somebody tell me where to type in the thingy with the C:// etc etc etc??? i am sooo lost :D HALPZ!

  23. Incognitoer says:

    Thanks previous poster: Incognito for Chrome works. It is better then “Private Browsing” in Firefox. That is because Firefox closes your regular windows to open “Private Browsing”.

  24. Mossy Sasquatch says:

    The mobile app does not seem to have the 40 hour limit.

  25. NoOneInParticular says:

    don’t feed the trolls

  26. dan says:

    Wow. I just read some of the comments ‘defending’ Pandora’s right to earn $1/month. I hate to say it but the pyramid is awfully big at the bottom as they say.

    People: please educate yourselves on Pandora’s business model before rushing to make unenlightened comments. It hurts to read ’em.

    Come on folks, smarten up!

  27. Lisa says:

    Like you were doing JP? lol

  28. JP says:

    I love this. A wall of text containing comments from people bitching about a multi-million dollar company’s 99 cents. Find something more noble to save stupid tree-huggers. How did you even find this unless you were seaching google for ways to get around the 40 hour limit?

  29. Candice says:

    I still remember when Pandora was free, without any 40-hr limit. To circumvent that, I created another account. 80 hours of music a month is quite a bit, but some months I reach that, and some months I don’t. But now that they have 40 hour limit per computer? Really now, Pandora? I find that ridiculous. I’m not going to buy another computer. Nor do I want to pay for the service when I use it sporadically. It was meant to be a free music genome project. It’s amazing, I’ll give it that, but I don’t go over 40 hours often enough to invest in Pandora One.

  30. Casey says:

    This is not piracy. Nothing is getting stolen.

    Does it violate the Pandora terms of service? Most likely. But are any laws actually getting broken? Unlikely.

    My main question is, why use Pandora at all? Slacker does not have a 40 hour limit and they have a far more customizable experience and have a far larger library. Slacker Basic is free in the USA and Canada and the Plus version can be had for only $4 per month.

  31. John says:

    What I don’t understand is why this is considered piracy? If you simply format your hard-drive along would go these files, so how is this all piracy. You have a right to what files are saved on your computer. If this is Pandora’s method of keeping track of who is listening, I don’t see why the blame is in turn put on us, if we delete these files. I think they have changed the way they operate because regardless, whether or not these files are deleted, my limit shows. I think your usage is linked to your account internally rather than by your computer.

  32. Cricobs says:

    I’m stealing $.99. Yes, I feel so pirate…

  33. Honest Ab says:

    I’m paying the $.99 cents because I cannot tell a lie…hey wait ,i just did.

  34. Windows 7 Version…

    – Log out of pandora…

    – Clear browser cache…

    – Close browser…

    – Delete everything in here… (or just the pandora related files / folders, and the settings.sol)

    C:\Users\USER\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player\macromedia.com\support\flashplayer\sys

    – Delete everything in here… (or just the pandora related files / folders)

    C:\Users\USER\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects (or the deeper folder[s])

    – Delete all the cookies here… (or just the pandora related ones)

    C:\Users\USER\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies

    – Open Browser & Clear Cache again (just to make sure, not required…)

    – Goto Pandora.com and login with another account…

    Where ‘USER’ in in the path’s above, change that out with your windows user, if you have any issues locating the folder and know you have the permission to (your not, not an admin), then goto the Explorer -> Organize -> Folder and Search Options -> View -> Select, “Show Hidden Files, Folders, & Drives”, click Apply / OK and navigate yourself to the paths described above…

  35. WRM140 says:

    I’m a Pandora One customer. No ads, five hour nag interval, 192kbps stream, all you can eat. For that service, $36 a year is a good value. I spend that much in a week on gas.

  36. Alice says:

    I’m sorry, but all of you people whining about how “unfair” this is to Pandora are pretty pathetic. MACtards sure seem to be a whiny bunch.

    If Pandora wanted to keep users from doing this, there’s a million other ways to go about their security that would make things infinitely more difficult.

    This prevention method is just a tool to usher people into buying their product, and it works well for the average user.

    But what is this that I speak of? You mean Pandora isn’t clinging starry-eyed and poverty-stricken to my measly “1$” per month payment?

    That’s just to keep their site up and running without being bitchslapped by the RIA. The truth is that Pandora makes a shitload of money off of advertisements and that’s ALWAYS where the money is in businesses online these days. With the type of money they’re making, they could pay for their entire user base to listen for free and still be in the green. Grow up, start an internet business, and then report back to me and tell me the money is in the subscriptions.

    Last time I checked, my computer and my files belonged to me, and I can delete anything I want off it at any time I want to. I suggest that most of the whiners on this thread go find something more productive to do with their time other than being nosy neighbors to the rest of us on the internet.

    GTFO back to your side of the fence, I don’t want you gaiz stepping on my grass.

  37. Titus Pullo says:

    Here’s how to beat the “40-hour Pandora limit” on PC (Windows XP).

    Let’s clean ourselves!

    1. Open C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME where USERNAME is your actual username.

    2. Press F3 to search

    3. Under “All or Part of the filename”, type “pandora” (no quotes)

    4. Under “More Advanced Search”, select “Search Hidden Files and Folders”

    5. Press Search button

    6. Delete all found files / directories.

    7A. In Firefox, delete all cookies and history. Under “Tools” –> “Clear Recent History” –> “Everything”

    7B. If you use IE, go to “Tools” –> “Internet Options” –> “Browsing History” –> “Delete” – Select all checkboxes. Click Delete.

    8. Make sure to close down all browsers before going back to Pandora.

    Your PC is now a “virgin” to Pandora servers.

    9. Re-open Firefox / IE.

    10. Important! Login to a ANOTHER Pandora account or create a NEW Pandora account. Do NOT login to your “40-hour restricted” Pandora account. If you do, your browser and PC will be marked and you will need to repeat all steps again to cleanse.

    Process should be similar on Vista / Windows. Modify the procedure for your Mac.

    Enjoy!

  38. SCJake says:

    might i direct you all to something that no one has said… all these people that are nay sayers on here obviously clicked on this link… need i say more?

  39. Josh says:

    I doubt, HIGHLY doubt, that anyone protesting this page is either:

    A) Pandora.com employee.
    B) Musician.
    C) Probably not even a subscriber to the paid service of Pandora One.

    Come on let’s see some credentials, guys.

  40. Josh says:

    Ahhh! Controversy!

    Pandora.com is amazing, I love their product that they offer and asked for Pandora One for Christmas, if I don’t get it from a family member I will probably buy it myself. This is mostly for the music quality upgrade, which this fix does not get you.

    I actually stumbled across this page because I was trying to find a link to the free 24 hour trial of Pandora One, and wasn’t planning on trying this tweak, but based on the responses about “stealing” I think I will in spite.

    I don’t download music illegally, which is why I use Pandora, which by the way is a multi-million dollar corporation that generates most of it’s revenue from ads that you will only see more of after using this fix.

    I am a musician, and I would LOVE for my music to be on Pandora someday, and hope everyone uses this fix to enjoy my music more!

    If you want to talk about stealing: Blockbuster no longer lets you rent movies or games for 1 night. You have to pay 3x as much for 3 nights. I think I’ll start downloading movies illegally now. And if the angry comments about controlling the distribution of music turn enough heads and Pandora becomes pay only, then maybe I’ll start downloading music illegally too!

  41. Rob says:

    I didn’t read all the comments, so I’m sorry if I am repeating anything. Uninstalling and reinstalling Pandora files is an obvious workaround, but its also a bit silly. I pay for Pandora for two reasons. First, the sound quality you get is much better. Second, it is one of the best services on the net and they keep their prices surprisingly low. Remember, they hire real musicians to sort music, rather than using the tired old “genres” shortcut. Genres are defined by record company execs and often have little to do with the music itself. Pandora had a great idea and has managed to survive for a while now. Unless you are poor (in which case you steel what you can) if you use the service I would encourage to to pay for the upgrade—and it IS an upgrade. Just my 2 cents worth. Cheers!

  42. Marley says:

    Shouldn’t Private Browsing help to….. I mean I only listen to Pandora in Private Browsing mode on Firefox… so none of the cookies should be saved. So I shouldn’t have to delete any cookies, because after leaving and going back to Pandora, there won’t be a record on my computer, right?

    Hypothetically speaking. I haven’t been on Pandora long enough to test this theory.

  43. David says:

    This isnt working for me :( damn

  44. smc says:

    this worked like a charm! omg thank youuuuu :D i use windows and completed all your steps but instead of signing in again i just created a new account :) sorry, i don’t have an extra $35 to spare! some of us live on a strict budget and wanting to listen to free music isn’t too bad now is it?? just get of your high horse or better yet, pay for my account if it bothers you THAT much that I’m clearing MY cookies on MY computer :) lol

  45. Tom says:

    After reading the comments, I came up with a conclusion: If people don’t, or can’t, see the efforts being put into a work, they’ll consider that work to be gratis.

    Case in point: Lots of people pirate MS Office. Almost none of those have ever stolen money from a bank – or even vegetables from the groceries.

    Pandora had to agree to pay for EACH SONG an user listens to. The more you listen, the more Pandora will have to pay for you. However, since you can’t see Pandora paying for you (presumably because Pandora offers 40 hourss for free), you automatically deem that you should get unlimited listening.

    FYI, nothing is ever free.

  46. Rafe B says:

    Regardless of if this works anymore, reading the comments made my day! The way I see it, the so called leaches are helpful. They find the weak points in how Pandora runs, Pandora investigates and fixes said weak points and makes the system as a whole stronger. So in a way it evens out; they don’t have to pay people to find these exploits, and you don’t have to pay for your music that month. I’m sure they lose more that month than they save, but if not for articles like this those little things can stay in the dark for quite some time. In the end, I call net gain.

    In hindsight… maybe storing the files that monitor hours listened on the customer’s computer wasn’t the best idea they’ve ever had.

    • Josh says:

      I know, serves them right for using MY memory.

      Very good points though, very Yin/Yang haha. I also made the point later that you will see/hear more Ads if you use these fix, generating more revenue for Pandora.

  47. needmusic says:

    This is not working for me. Guess pandora found the glitch.

  48. Chubner says:

    hahahahahaha!!!! I LOVE articles like this! ……. And YES, the instructions in this article no longer work – on their own.

    1. Follow the instructions laid out in this article

    2. Open a NEW or existing SECONDARY Pandora account and viola! You’ve got a whole new 40 hrs of listening pleasure.

    *** If you fail to do step 1, Pandora will recognize your computer and give you the “This computer has reached its 40hr limit” message and you won’t be able to listen to Pandora regardless of the account you’re logged into.

    P.S. The ONLY way to change the oppressive system that has the human race in shackles is NON-COMPLIANCE. As long as you are not violating the rights of your fellow MAN or WOMAN (Pandora is a CORPORATION!), or violating Universal or Gods Laws, then JUST DO IT!!!

    Don’t let the Corporation (or any of the tools who commented on this page, or any other sheeple) trick you into believing that this qualifies as “stealing”.

    Give me a break – in fact – give us ALL a break. Pandora makes its money from ADVERTISEMENTS. Pandora actually PREFERS we dont pay. Every paying listener causes the amount Pandora can charge advertises to go down significantly. And believe me, the $36 a year they charge for upgrading in no way supplements the decrease in what they can charge their advertising clients.

    “The illusion of freedom will continue for as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will take down the scenery, move the tables and chairs out of the way, then they will pull back the curtains and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.” – Frank Zappa

  49. Zack says:

    it’s so nice to be reading stuff like this that isn’t about mac versus windows! well, since i didn’t really read it all i could be wrong ;-]

  50. darkspark343 says:

    this is NOT piracy. piracy is fulfilling the steps that this describes. all this is is a proof of concept. pro hackers do this kind of stuff all the time, like exploiting a certain bug in software in order to steal data. their intentions aren’t always bad. articles like this may actually help pandora make their security stronger.

    p.s. why are you people reading this article if you do t approve of this? we don’t need your holier than thou mentality here. thank you for listening :D

  51. Paul says:

    Never before have I seen a more wretched hive of scum and thieving villainy than this web page.

  52. John says:

    “It’s not our fault your business model sucks.

    If you provided more value for the money, people wouldn’t need to resort to pirating.”

    Oh please. Many people (most of the people advocating this method in here) will rationalize however they can to get free stuff (stealing).

    If they don’t provide the ‘value for money’ then don’t pay for it. It’s hilarious how you guys try to turn it around into ‘oh if it’s not worth the money then steal it!’.

  53. Dave says:

    “WAH WAH WAH

    YOU GUYS ARE PIRATES.”

    It’s not our fault your business model sucks.

    If you provided more value for the money, people wouldn’t need to resort to pirating.

  54. ZigZag says:

    Tried this twice – three times… Did NOT work for me. Any other workarounds?
    Thanks,
    K.J.L.H.

  55. Jwalker says:

    Thanks for this information, proved useful. Think about this, Im sure Pandora doesn’t really care that much, because before i found this fix i just simply started listening to last.fm….so therefore they lost a consumer listening to their ads. Now if their deal is with the record companies on giving you 40hrs free listening a month, then dont ya think they make it this easy to remove the 40hr limit on purpose. Almost like they have to follow the rules but if you break them its on you. Much like the FTA recievers. These companies dont make usb upgradable satellite recievers for you to get the gospel channel on FTA, they make them so you can reprogram them to get the channels you really want. But since this is done by the consumer they aren’t at fault.

    So same with pandora, im sure they could make it more difficult to limit your listening (block your account or IP address) but they dont because sure you aren’t paying that 99 cents…..but you ARE listening to their advertisements!

    Thank again!

  56. cmore10 says:

    You’re all pillaging Vandals and Visigoths

  57. Zard says:

    Pandora is not free. I have to listen to their stupid ads all day. Sometimes I’ll even click on their banner ads to be a good consumer. If they’re not generating enough revenue from that, then their business model is flawed. not my problem. this is bait-and-switch.

  58. Cory says:

    @brian and @slipline
    They couldn’t easily track IPs, since most home users have dynamic IPs and most work users are behind several layers of routers, so that they would all share the limit. Not to mention even if they did try to track IPs, you can still proxy or VPN out.

    Their best bet would probably be to track MAC addresses, but you can spoof those.

    So really, this system was probably the best combination of effectiveness/least effort.

  59. Zeus says:

    Wouldn’t it be better just to make a run bat file that runs when you turn off the computer to delete the file in question, this way you never have to repeat the same step.
    2nd thing you can do is even better
    Ready, If you have firefox just get “NoScripts”, download, install, and when your on Pandora allow only Pandora.com, it should be the first one on the list.
    3th thing an easy one when changing stations hit reload on your browser and with noscrips it will reload by passing all the stops and start the music asap..

  60. Crys says:

    Thanks a lot for the help. I’m addicted to this website and I always miss it when I reach the limit.

  61. Slipline says:

    Wow, Mac users are just a bunch of whiny tarts.

    If Pandora REALLY was concerned with limiting people to the 40 hour period, they’d use IP tracking instead of cookie loading.

    They don’t care about the $1, they just needed to do something to keep the music industry tards happy.

    In a month of use, Pandora makes FAR MORE than one single Washington off of you. Why would they want to completely cut out their primary source of revenue.

    They needed to make it at least slightly difficult as opposed to having a button like “Ignore 40 Hour Limit” so again, music industry tards can’t complain.

    As for piracy, you’re deleting files off of your PERSONAL COMPUTER and there isn’t an agreement in the world that can prevent you from legally doing that. So, little Mac tarts, if Pandora really gave a damn, there are far better ways they could have secured their farking dollar.

  62. brian says:

    1) it’s pandora’s fault to allow for an easy work around. how hard would it be to throw in some simple javascript and a database of IPs?
    2) the client can (and should be expected to) do anything they wish with their own computer, hard-drive, and files. deleting files is not and never will be illegal.
    3) others sites like jango are free for indefinite use. pandora can’t expect to make money this way with such competition anyway.

  63. frank says:

    thanks for publishing this bug so that it can be fixed in the next release!

  64. SovietPsyOPS says:

    It would be one thing if I thought my 99 cents was going into the pocket of some new band just on the rise, who really needed it. Forking over my personal information to make sure those guys at the RIAA can afford to drive a Corvette and laugh at me? I think I’ll pass. A pretty simple fix if you think about it, thanks for the share.

    One day, we’ll all be behind our very own internet censorship and monitoring, either on a national or, heaven forbid, a global level. Better get your free music while you can, boys and girls, because the internet is a rapidly changing place, and if you think the corporations are going to let you shave from their bottom line forever, you’re sorely mistaken.

    For those that haven’t heard of it, I urge you all to make yourselves aware of the ACTA, that is, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a multinational initiative that makes the DMCA wet it’s pants at night.

    http://www.laquadrature.net/files/201001_acta.pdf

    The full latest leaked documents from this highly secret proposal can be found at the link provided. Knowledge is power, my friends.

  65. ItWorks says:

    I dont know why everyone says it doesn’t. You should put up Windows 7 Instructions – the file directory is just different. This works, I appreciate the article. Props.

  66. obeliab says:

    Paying Pandora to pay the RIAA and big license-monsters is really the core issue, as it never seemed like Tim Westergren was a money-grubbing foo looking to net massive profits. This puts one in a dilemma over this cool 99 cents: do you help Pandora so that they can pay the RIAA and co. with your money, or do you say Fuck ’em all! and make your dollar-bill stand against the system? You stopped buying CDs because of the stupid CEOs who didn’t want to let go of 80’s and early 90’s profit margins, why should you now support this new intrusion into art-for-fuck’s-sake?

    Sure, maybe the 99 cents isn’t a second mortgage, but I’m one of 35 million-plus making the decision to throw a dollar at the situation.

    Personally, I pay the shit, just because I’m rather resigned to the nature of the business beast. But in my head, I’m totally not paying that stupid dollar, and I’m doin’ it like a badass, with good reasons, and all that. I’ve even got a leather jacket, maybe. I do approve of circumventing the charge, so long as one realizes that, by keeping millions of pennies from flowing into mega-huge record companies’ coffers, one is symbolically trashing Pandora in the process. That’s the system and this sure as fuck ain’t the way out of it, with or without a Christian ethic that prohibits anything looking like theft.

    Now, murder… I guess at least we have something to agree on, all of you. That’s pretty wrong.

  67. Photoshoped.
    I can tell from some if the pixels and from seeing quite a few shops in my time.

    For fack sake people, get your head out of your butt. If this is “stealing” then every time you go over the legal speed limit GOD kills a kitten. What he is doing is just using his knowledge and resources to get around a problem.

    I bet everyone has gone over the speed limit sometime in there life. That IS breaking the law and IS illegal, but did you get a ticket EVERY time? No, because the law enforcement is not going to waste their time on something that equals the same as going over the speed limit by 1MPH… on the freeway.

    have a good day young chaps, and my the Force be with you.

  68. J Dubs says:

    Wow, I just posted something about “Awesome that someone figured out how to get past the 40 hr limit”, then I read some of the other posts about people being pissed about people getting past the 40 hr limit, and not wanting to pay the 99 cents. Do you people really have nothing better to do than to worry about other people’s cookies on their computers? If you really care that much, why don’t you try and write a program for pandora that makes it so people can’t do that, or post a message board about how to pay more for pandora. You’re just mad because you didn’t think of it first. PROPS TO WHOEVER POSTED THIS! What was the saying? “Keep on rockin’ in the “free” world?” Yeah, that’s what I thought.

  69. J Dubs says:

    I personally think that if pandora wants to limit it’s free listeners to 40 hrs a month, they are basiccly inviting computer savvy people to find ways around that. It’s 2010, people, and if someone wants something for free that’s online, they are going to find a way to do it. I think there should be more people like the poster of this information. Corperations must understand that if you try to put limits on things like pandora, people will find a way to get around that limit. Get over it. Screw limitations on a “free” service. We need more tech heads to figure out ways around stupid limitations.

  70. ladygagaloverrr says:

    Dude, why were there so many people dissing this guy who is just completely smart? It’s 99 cents, okay he wants to steal it, so do other people, it pops up on GOOGLE once you start searching ‘getting around pand-‘! Wtf is wrong with you, obviously other people want to do it too, Jesus.

    And I for one want to do what he showed all of us to do. So people who are against this stop being such a hypocrite and just let all of us live our lives.

  71. tinkerist says:

    as much as i listen, they’re losing more than $.99 by cutting me off before the month is half over. that’s 20 days worth of ads they can’t play at me. silly pandora. i won’t start paying for their service until their “genome” is more effective. there are hundreds of attributes to songs they totally ignore and often attributes which are given to songs are inaccurate. even if they fix that, they are still making lots of money from advertisers, they don’t need my dollar, and i feel no need to give it to them.

  72. pirate says:

    i think this is a great site and the gnome project rocks!! everyone one loves this streaming site… it is just amazing and you dont have to worry about carrying your music collections or buying new ones anymore…. they got it all.. so please, if you like it, please pay for it.. i wouldnt pay for other softwares as well but this is just a great accomplishment, so i would if it played in my country..

  73. VictorianGod says:

    Seriously, who the fuck cares, to me, this is NOT steeling. Fuck i had Pandora BEFORE thay started Charging you for there *work* and then all of a sudden i get slapped in the face with, pay to continue to listen bull shit. its not fair to me. i had been listening and supporting Pandora since the birth of it and i didnt get anything now did i? so, now i get around it. i LOVE this. it was Very helpful. ^_^ thanx!

    • SailBad says:

      Really? You “supported” Pandora before they started charging? How so? Did you send them checks? When making an online purchase, did you tell the vendor “Oh, by the way, it was your ad on Pandora that led to this purchase”?

      You feel like you’ve been “slapped in the face”? Yeah, reality will do that to you.

      The fact is, Pandora now has to pay for each and every play of each song for each listener. They fought to use a more reasonable royalty payment scheme (similar to how am/fm radio stations pay), but this is the best they could get. There was a very good chance that Pandora wasn’t going to be able to stream ANY free music.

      Pandora now incurs a substantial cost in order to provide this product, and yet, they’re still giving it to us for free – just not in unlimited quantities anymore. If you don’t want to pay, go try last.fm or some other streaming site for a while.

      Just because the method of controlling how much music you get from Pandora resides on your computer doesn’t mean that it’s not stealing. When you use a piece of software or a service, you agree to any Terms of Use (whether you bother to read them or not). Your options are to agree, or not use the software or service.

      So you can decide for yourself whether or not to bypass the 40-hour limit, but if you do so, just admit it – you are stealing service. Man up.

  74. James Monroe says:

    tried this on osx and it didnt work…. probably a dumb question, but do i need to change my pandora acct name, too?

  75. loler ahah says:

    oh wait i assumed on the second point, lol oh well. ahah

  76. loler ahah says:

    lol its super funny, because you all assume that the people offering these solutions are actually people that exploit these methods. 1) you only know that they know how to do it, not that they do. because they could be bored, etc. 2) why are you pointing fingers at someone. i’m pretty sure all of you do illegal stuff too, such as topping off for gas, etc. so please stow it.

  77. Loweone says:

    Thanks for the article, never mind all the negative vibes from everyone else..

  78. Bitchnigguh says:

    You’re all bitch a$$ nig guhs

  79. Bob says:

    ur all fags

  80. DGAF says:

    haha Pandora is the coolest thing to happen to the internet since youporn.com. And i save more money switching to Progressive thanks to Pandora. Kudos to the guys working the G-nome project. Keep up the good work guys!

  81. iphonetoMac says:

    I have done it. It works for my computer. I appreciate your article.

  82. GeekAtWork says:

    This does not work if you have a profile setup. Only if your a anonymous user which sucks if you already have all your stations setup..

  83. You guys are dumb. This is not piracy. This is simply working around your personal internet cache. If it was piracy, we’d be stealing the music. We are not stealing the music. Stealing is piracy. Get it? Got it? Good!

    Good job to the person who wrote this article.

  84. CE says:

    Pandora will give you a message that you are close to your listening limit…36 / 38 hours…I believe once you hit the 40 hours on a specific username it locks your IP Address / System Address. I have created multiple email address accounts with the same stations and just switch to another account once I receive the “listening limit” message and so far have had no issues. Definitely not pirating….

  85. […] my stations as well as one in which I don’t have to pay.  In my research I have come across ways around the 40 hour limit that involve clearing cookies, but based on reviews it seems that these methods are not always that promising.  My method may […]

  86. ryandatx says:

    props for posting.

  87. Nest says:

    Worth trying.

  88. blah says:

    right click the flash app on the main page. click settings. set storage to zero. go back to pandora. everthing is reset. set the storage to 10k.

  89. forumsevdam says:

    how dare you steal an entire 99 cents from me oh my god. this is an outrage what kind of sick bastard would steal 99 cents. holy fuck

  90. Toris says:

    Ahhh… I have windows vista. And I did everything successfully til I got to the cookies part.. It says access denied. What do I do?!

  91. Shawn says:

    I find it funny how people rationalize themselves. The end result is the same no matter how you achieve it. If you could steal a car from your neighbor by blinking your eyes and wiggling your nose, does it make it ok? Sure, they may be your eyes and your nose, but your neighbor is the one that paid for the car and it is his.

    That is the same story for Pandora. They have to pay royalties for this music, and they are getting screwed over in what they have to pay considering what they are. But YOU not paying them does not mean that THEY dont pay. You listening means that Pandora has to pay that royalty no matter what. If too many leechers delude themselves into thinking theft is ok, they will have to figure out another way to pay their costs… most likely with increased advertising.

    So I hope that people who like Pandora enough to listen to it over 40 hours a month will continue to allow them to work and respect them enough to pay that 99 cents. And if you refuse, instead of doing work arounds, steal music from else where instead of from Pandora.

  92. Kyle says:

    Stealing, lying, taking advantage… whatever you call it, it just isn’t right.

    Professional musicians get paid by licensing organizations who police the internet and other piracy sources on behalf of musicians’ legal rights. Pandora pays theses licensing organizations for the rights to broadcast of this music. Paying Pandora users make this all possible.

    Pandora has built some terrific technology providing a great convenience to its users, and it should be rewarded. If you want free music, go to MySpace and find the original artists posting it themselves.

    The attitude, “I’m not hurting anyone,” actually hurts everyone. Pick up an economics text book.

    And John Lennon was making music when music piracy was technologically impractical and he was a millionaire already.

    Original works of art should be supported so we can continue to have works by original artists.

    If you’re deleting cookies, you are circumventing the technology used by Pandora and its licensors to protect content accessible via the Pandora Services in direct violation of the deal you made with Pandora.com.

    Your character is defined by what you do when nobody’s watching. If you need to re-read the promise you made to Pandora, click http://www.pandora.com/legal.

    • Chubner says:

      Oh Kyle… You’re such a good little citizen.. And that was NOT a compliment.

      I share EVERYTHING. And guess what, it made me a millionaire by 31 – with 21 companies, over 11,000 employees world-wide, and endless amounts of people inspired to create their lives from the inside out.

      Believing that people “stealing” from you or your company “hurts everyone”, and setting up all this legal crap is such an undeveloped and highly competitive mindset.

      In order for any person or any company to be truly successful, their philosophy MUST be one based on CREATIVITY (not competition) and ABUNDANCE.

      Your entire comment on this thread is so cookie cut and regurgitated, it makes me wonder if you even know who or what YOU are.

      **God help you to unlock your TRUE capacity for thought.**

      And oh, by the way, being surrounded by attorneys, I’ve learned that a contract is NEVER just a contract.

      Trying to hold someone “legally” accountable to retain tracking data deposited by internet companies onto their computer is NOT legal – it is simply ACCEPTED.

      • JD says:

        wow you are incredibly stupid. the reason for the limit on Pandora is that it protects the artists making the music. if music is just freely available to everyone all the time then there would be no way for the artists to make money from their music and the world would suddenly find itself in a situation where no new (good) music was being produced.

        your bs economic argument might apply if the limit existed simply to serve the selfish interest of some evil Pandora executive. but the reality is that person doesn’t even exist and that is not at all the reason for the 40 hour limit.

        • Casey says:

          No, you are incredibly stupid.

          The 40 hour limit has nothing to do with protecting the artists. Absolutely nothing. End of story. Ever listened to AM/FM radio? Is it free? Darn, I think it is.

          Pandora does not give away free music. They pay very expensive royalties and use ads to cover the costs. They paid nearly $50 million in royalties in the last year. That number will increase greatly each year.

          The reason for the $1 for more than the 40 hour limit is to try to raise a little extra cash and to try to bump more people to the subscription which is only $3 per month. Pandora is still unlimited on mobile devices because they can gather more revenue from ads. They do not care about protecting artists with the 40 hour limit.

          Slacker has unlimited free listening. Artists still get paid. Broadcast radio is free and has unlimited listening. Shoutcast is free and unlimited. Artists make money from royalties, sales, and concerts. Your point is invalid.

          • Mike says:

            AM/FM is free with commercials every 3 songs, the inability to customize what you listen to in any way. You must be in range of an antenna. try listening to the music you want to hear on the radio on a cross-country drive.

            If you know of other free services than why are you even here? You are full of it.

          • Casey says:

            I am full of it? Please clarify.

            Absolutely nothing I said was incorrect. The limit had nothing to do with protecting artists. The $1 fee was to try to bump up subscribers and raise extra money, and they do pay royalties.

            The fact that AM/FM stations have poor range has absolutely nothing to do with the conversation. But, for that matter, try listening to Pandora on a cross-country drive and let me know how that works out for you.

            I could name over a dozen free services for music. Slacker is only one of them. The service is also one of the best that I use on a daily basis. Guess what… they pay royalties too.

            I am here for people like you. People who think they know everything. People who try to make others who actually know something, look dumb.

      • James says:

        Kyle, I’m glad you were able to become a millionaire. I can only guess from your comments that you made your millions in an industry that isn’t vulnerable to piracy. It’s funny how people make money selling things like computer hardware are so quick to say “knowledge should be free.”

        Without software though computers are useless, and programmers deserve to be paid. Sure, things like Linux were written for free, but is it right to expect people to work for free? “Look, he enjoys it, it’s all about the art for him. Let’s all use his stuff and not pay him. Free knowledge” Do you see how mean spirited that is? Why should people work with bits and bytes instead of metal and plastic be less allowed to make a living from their work?

  93. Pandora Limit Sucks says:

    @Mark,

    it works fine but obviously if you are using a pandora account that is logged in it stores the session information within your login as well so of course if you exceed the logged in limit it will do that. this is a recent change on pandora’s side but you can still reset your pandora cookies like this site says how to and it will reset your hour limit. i do it once a month on average and it is fine. i like pandora but i dont like the riaa so i do not support, i say reset cookies and let the music stay free like john lennon wanted.

    -Nicholas

  94. Mark says:

    This won’t work, atleast not any more, otherwise when you went from computer to computer you would get a new 40 hours. I use a computer here at school that clears all files every night – it actually reverts all files back to their original status at every reboot – and every time I log into pandora the hour count starts at 40, but 20 seconds later it downloads the information and it reflects the real amount of hours I have, and @Russel, this is on an XP machine, so I am calling this fake, or out of date and not just an issue win Win 7.

  95. Kenneth Kasajian says:

    LOL. Too funny.

    I think you should write an app to do this, and sell it for $5. I bet someone will buy it, and no one will pirate it. :)

  96. Russell says:

    In Windows 7, the folder is:
    C:\Users\NAME_HERE\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects
    The Documents & Settings is blocked or non existent.
    My hours remain the same, but I was signed out.
    :(
    Any Luck with any other 7 users?

  97. Jay says:

    I can’t believe that I am reading all those incredulous comments about stealing!

    How in the world is it stealing if I delete cookies from my own computer? These ignorant morons need a lesson in private property rights. They are the same people who will say “the cops don’t need a search warrant” and “if you have nothing to hide, you should have nothing to fear” and have no clue why there different branches of the government or even how many different branches of the government there are.

    Pandora should have a better technical system. And it looks like they do have it in place now where they keep count of the hours listened on their end.

    Anyhow, a great way to get rid of those pesky flash cookies, which just do not go away unless you delete them manually, which are so good that even whitehouse.gov uses them and can track your moves (http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/08/you-deleted-your-cookies-think-again/) – is the firefox addon Better Privacy https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6623

  98. […] one of your email addresses. This way you can listen to the same station(s) you usually do.Then, as OSXDaily.com writes, on […]

  99. cory says:

    some people are nuts. it’s certainly not “stealing” anything if they place files on your computer. you can delete whatever the heck you want on your computer. maybe they’re at fault for making it so easy. i’m just saying. AND no one is forcing you to delete these files. if you don’t like it, no worries. to each his own.

    thanks osxdaily.

  100. Therepresentative says:

    Have any of you considered the possibility that we might not have a credit card we can use due to the fact that we dont use credit cards and pandora doesn’t accept paypal?

    OR THE FACT THEY DONT TAKE MY FREACKING AMERICAN EXPRESS CARD.

    To some people the crimped system of payment collection is literally impossible to deal with, because im not signing up for another credit card just to listen to pandora.

    Why dont you high and mighty rich kids get used to the idea that not everyone has a black card from every credit card provider in the world.

    In addition to that, i know plenty of people who dont even have credit cards, period.

    FINALLY, it is the responsibility of pandora to fix this issue. as soon as they add more payment options id be glad to pay the money.

    • James says:

      Those are great excuses, good job. Now you don’t have to feel bad about stealing. Kudos.

    • Kyle says:

      HA! ‘Rich kids’… oh wait maybe just people who own a Visa… If you have an American Express card you really should have another card as a backup. Or just ditch it all together.

    • Mike says:

      Just use a Visa gift card! Nice try!

      “I can’t afford music but it’s my right to have it!”

      Look at all the lame excuses the thiefs are using!

      Hey guys, try this…honesty!

      “I steal movies and software because it’s easy and I don’t care what anybody thinks.”

      I’d respect that more than your pathetic excuses.

  101. TechlesCrunchles says:

    Hey author you should just pony up the $0.99 you broke ass, I don’t know what’s worse, you and your cheapass refusing to pay less than the price of a coffee for a music service or the douchebags complaining about you posting a ‘how to delete cookies’ guide. Hey you complaining douche bags, Pandora is doing just fine even with the few people deleting their cookies to get the service free. You’re all idiots! Pandora is profitable and doing fine!

    http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/25/pandora-from-near-death-to-profitability-in-a-year/

  102. SteamyReamy says:

    This is piracy! Like overseas Somali vagrant muslim piracy! You are a pirate like the pirate bay! You are worse! I am shocked and appalled that you are providing this information! The internet is not for information! Wait, would you explain how to pirate software? Would you explain what the weather is like today? You thief! Dirty douche bag leech thief! You are making some record exec very sad right now, he had to buy FOUR BENTLEYS instead of FIVE this year and you are the very reason why! Leechy bag of information providing douche! Holy the fuck! Completely not in the cool zone! You are Stealing! 99 cents of thief! I am going home and never coming back to you information givers again!

  103. how dare you steal an entire 99 cents from me oh my god. this is an outrage what kind of sick bastard would steal 99 cents. holy fuck

  104. l.m.orchard says:

    Seriously? You’ve listened to 40 hours of music from their service for free, used their matching software as your personal DJ—and when they only want a buck for the rest of the month, you stiff ’em?

    Douchebag leech.

    • Chubner says:

      Are you kidding me???

      Free???

      Its paid for by Advertisements.

      HARDLY free.

      And “Douchebag Leech”?

      Wow, how fearless you are to call someone that on a website comment bar.

      You must be so proud of yourself.

      The very fact you ended your comment with that failed attempt at an insult and putting someone in their place, shows what a contradictive hypocrite you are.

      You try to call someone out for what YOU believe is “wrong”, then the very next sentence you give them a low class name.

      The next time you use Rogaine for that receding hairline of yours, go ahead and use it to give your mouth a good rinse too!

      • Molly says:

        HAHAHA…you’re such a smart ass…but I like it! :)

      • nope says:

        great job completely invalidating whatever point you may have had with that last sentence!

        incidentally, i have never seen or heard an ad of any sort on Pandora. probably because i’m not a moron and have adblock installed, but in any case, ads can only finance the service up to a point. if everyone listened to Pandora 100 hrs a month without paying the $1 fee, the whole thing would go under in no time.

        • Casey says:

          No, you are an idiot. Ads can finance the service entirely. Pandora’s IPO information shows they make over 90% of their money from ads and plan to continue to make it their primary revenue source. Slacker does it (free, unlimited listening) and they are in the black. Nearly every shoutcast station does it. In fact every radio service does it except for Pandora….

          Some services have a premium service, but so does Pandora.

          When you use adblock obviously Pandora will lose money.

          The $1 is a drop in the bucket compared to ad revenue. 40 hours or 160 hours per month, Pandora still makes more money then they spent supplying you the service. The reason they are losing money currently is because of massive staff overhead costs. Increased listening means increased ad revenues, which means they will be closer to being profitable.

        • James says:

          Wait, you have Adblock installed!?! I was kind of with you there. Everyone steals, but people who brag about it and justify it by saying things like “blah blah blah, the system” and “musicians don’t even want to charge, it’s all about the music man” piss me off to no end. Just admit you like free stuff and stop trying to make it out to be some political statement. But Adblock!?! How is that any better? You’re using a free service that’s only able to be free due to the ads and you’re leeching by blocking the ads.

          • Mike says:

            Gotcha there.

            However, I’m a self employed game designer. It takes me months to write a game, and I should just give it away?

            People, don’t waste your time here. Anyone advocating piracy is just a kid who hasn’t yet experienced real life.

          • Casey says:

            Who is allocating piracy? Bypassing the limit on Pandora was never piracy. At most it was a ToS violation, but that doesn’t make it piracy. Nothing was getting stolen.

  105. your a joke says:

    Are you kidding these guys make millions through their advertising now i have to give them my credit card info for this. I wouldnt want them to have my personal info. Thanks for the fix!!!

  106. Losbot says:

    Struggling to make it? They “struggled” & made $125m last year. LMAO!!

  107. RSTURIM says:

    Completely uncool. Pandora is a great service struggling to make it. They proposed a good compromise at an amazingly reasonable price.

    It’s these tactics that put a tiny company like Pandora at risk. C’mon, be responsible and help the little guy

    • Chubner says:

      The only thing putting Pandora at “risk”, is the people running it. Period. End of story.

      P.S. You must be a self-proclaimed little guy judging from your comment.

  108. NR says:

    Who is pandora “stealing” from? You really think the music g-nome project is in it for the happiness of it all. Put up a web site and we can wave our magic wands a be high on music. Why , that’s enough for any gnome!.

    I hope you pay your 99 cents EVERY month. put it on pay pal (they aren’t in it for you money either, are they?) it doesn’t take long only about 99 cents of your time. Hey that’s fair and you get to listen to music–for only 99 cents…on the internet! That’s the way it’s supposed to be. Isn’t it?
    NR

  109. Terrence Brown says:

    What system? Sounds like anything you can’t steal belongs to the “system.” That “system” keeps you alive stupid. Stop accepting things propped up by the “system” and let’s see how long you last. You’ll be in under a cactus in the desert with no Mac.

    p.s. Too many of these articles are about stealing.

  110. Illuminatise says:

    Fell out of me chair laughing. Unless you have a strong vested interest in pandora and have money on the line, you’re just a nosey neighbor who has nothing better to do than prop the system up and be a tool. Are you kidding me with this stuff?

    Anyhow, here is another way to get a work around to this problem:

    1) Go to following path:

    C:\Users\(FIND YOUR USER NAME)\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects\EE33GMD9

    2) Delete Pandora
    3) Open FireFox/Tools/Options/Privacy/Show Cookies
    4) Delete Pandora
    5) Restart Firefox
    6) Go to Pandora.
    7) Enjoy while pissing off the public WWW watch dog groups.

    • PresidentBush says:

      “you’re just a nosey neighbor who has nothing better to do than prop the system up and be a tool.”
      -That is the best shit I’ve heard all week! Amen

      And Terrence Brown, “That “system” keeps you alive stupid.” Your a fluffing idiot

      • Chubner says:

        hahahahahahaha!!!! YES!!! The programmed responses of all the sheeple is always good for a laugh!!! And that laugh is even better when you’re not the only one who sees it! Good stuff Illuminatise and PresidentBush! lmao! We need more articles like this! Nothing is of any real value unless it can be shared!

      • Eric says:

        Illuminatise EE33GMD9 is a randomly generated folder name unique to your computer. So if you are follow his directions your folder will have a different but equally strange name.

    • nope says:

      so i guess you think you have an inalienable right to free music 24/7? and anyone who expects to make money by providing you with that service can just S your D because they’re all just tools of “the system”…? oh you big bad rebel you!

      and of course it does not follow logically from the fact that you obviously love the system (because you need to be consuming its products and services — provided by evil corrupt old Pandora — 24/7) that you should do anything other than attempt to subvert that very system which sustains your miserable worthless life.

      • Casey says:

        Ad revenue pays for their costs. What it doesn’t cover, it soon will. Therefore, 24/7 free listening is possible.

        I bet you didn’t know this… but guess what happens when you bypass the 40 hour limit? They play you 40 more hours of music with advertisements. They actually make more money off you deleting their cookie, on your computer!

        • Kyle says:

          If that was in fact the case, why would pandora enforce a limit? Last I heard companies like to make money…

          • Casey says:

            You are right… Pandora does want to make money. In fact, they want to make even more money then they already are. So how does a company like Pandora do this? They enforce a limit to attempt to bring $1 monthly “tips” or have people subscribe to Pandora One for $3 per month.

            The fact is that advertising accounts for roughly 90% of their revenue. They are close to making a profit and are getting closer every quarter… this must mean that advertising is profitable. If you bypass the 40 hour limit, they are still serving you with ads and therefore still making money. They are simply not making as much as they want too.

      • Hmmmmmm says:

        Uh…isn’t the radio 24/7 Free music?

        This isn’t even free…I pay for the broadband to be able to run it :)

  111. anymouse says:

    pandora is a free service that you pay for to get premium features. deleting cookies stored on your own system from a free service is definitely NOT pirating.

  112. someguy says:

    I mean it’s not like you’re doing anything illegal, all it took was deleting some cookies off your hard drive. I wouldn’t compare that to cracking software which is copyrighted; totally different.

  113. g.b says:

    Agreed that this is piracy. Seems like a waste of time for 99 cents. How long did it take to write this piece? Is this site advocating theft from Pandora?

  114. John Burnett says:

    …wait. Would you publish an article explaining how to pirate software? This is effectively what this one is doing. Pandora is providing a service, and due to circumstances out of their control, they’re charging for those services to cover their costs. Subverting that is simply stealing. As someone who “loves Pandora”, the submitter certainly has an interesting way of showing it, just to save 99 cents a month. Good job mac geek.

    • Gabe says:

      Did the poster physically hurt you with this post?
      im pretty sure he did not. stop being a little baby.

      I think its astonishing how many people tend to bury their heads in the sand when the issue of piracy comes up. Everybody, and i do literally mean everybody, has pirated something. period. stop acting like its this huge deal that only the just can fix. no thats not going to happen. if you think deleting a few files off your computer to listen to free music (which is what the radio is too, what if they imposed a price on the radio?) is a federal crime then you should be locked up merely for ignorance. its a new age, everything is digital. plenty of people out there (including myself) believe in free information, and those people will do whatever they have to to help others life in a world without greed.

      Stop being a sheep! You are being led to slaughter and you think its the best think that can happen to you. you are a tool plain and simple. the only reason big companies are so greedy is because they know they can use the media to manipulate a vast majority of the populous into fighting BLINDLY for their cause.

      Most bands these days (atleast the good ones) dont even want to charge for their music anymore cause they realize that its just become about the money. thats not what mucis is.

      did Beethoven ever demand that anyone who listen to him play pay?
      no. what about Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci? no.

      stop being a douche bag and let us have what we want. free information for all.

      Good day Communist America.

      • Gabe says:

        I apologize for my spelling errors, Ignorance frustrates me.

        • Fred says:

          Oh, Gabe, You arrogant and ignorant ‘merican. Leonardo & Beethoven never charged for their art? They had sponsors and wealthy benefactors that paid for everything and paid very well.

          Your statement ‘stop being a douche bag and let us have what we want. free information for all.’ reveals that you have never created or contributed anything to this world. Go and write a song or paint a painting. I guarantee you will not be giving it away for free.

          Love this, also: “Most bands these days (atleast the good ones) dont even want to charge for their music anymore cause they realize that its just become about the money.” What the freak are you talking about? All the GREAT bands charge for their music. You are a spoiled, gluttonous, arrogant and entitlement-laden idiot spouting anything to justify your bad behavior.

          In case you hadn’t noticed, you live in a capitalistic society. The dollar is our mode of currency. When you are bagging groceries at the market or whatever high-level job you spend your little days doing do you expect to do it for free? Hell no. You probably have never done anything for anyone else in your life. You want what you want when you want it even if it has no value in your life.

          There is a big difference between freedom of information and STEALING someone else’s creative output. The ‘author’ of this article is also an idiot. He wrote this article for only one reason: to increase viewership to this website. He has bills to pay and mouths to feed. He knew his revealing how to reset the Pandora limit would generate page hits. Page hits translate to higher revenue.

          In closing, you typed ‘I apologize for my spelling errors, Ignorance frustrates me.’ Believe me, your ignorance is not only in your spelling errors. And that makes you the douchebag.

          • Craig says:

            well put Fred!

          • What a Bitch says:

            You too Craig. Little kiss ass.

          • Mike says:

            +1 Fred…. I am a CDN engineer and I know how much it cost to bring those kind of services to the end-user… it is not free! Even if the music is free, content distribution networks are not. So even if we dont have to pay a dime for the music itself, we still need to pay for the distribution costs.

          • C says:

            Fred = the man.

      • No Name says:

        Will you please provide Empirical evidence that show “Everybody, and I do literally mean everybody, has pirated something.”?

        Freedom of information is not the same as stealing. Just because you believe in this false sense of freedom that allows you to steal does not make it okay…

        And yes committing a federal crime can be as easy as deleting a few files off your computer.

        What relevance does physical pain have to do with illegal activity?

        Again could you provide Empirical evidence showing that “Most bands” don’t want to charge for their music. Last I checked “Most bands” wanted to be compensated for their time and effort, otherwise they would not be able to afford food on their table.

        As for the rest of what you had to say it was blatantly unintelligible ramblings with little worth…

        And yes your ignorance frustrates me too…

        • Casey says:

          Haha No Name… you really make me laugh.

          This is not stealing. Absolutely nothing is being stolen. This article is not telling you how easy it is to download Music from Pandora, which would be stealing. This article is only telling you how to delete cookies off of your computer so you can utilize another 40 hours of Pandora’s service. You are not hacking into Pandora to gain more hours. It is no different then cleaning out your computer or even using a second computer. Would you consider that illegal? The fact that Pandora is not able to prevent you from using multiple accounts does not mean you are stealing. Their terms of service do not disallow having multiple accounts.

          Deleting cookies can not be considered a federal crime. No one can stop you from or charge you for deleting cookies off of your computer that you never technically gave them permission to put on your computer in the first place. They could attempt to take you to court, but it would get nowhere fast.

          For people who still do not know… this does not hurt artists in any way whatsoever. They get paid royalties from Pandora regardless of if you use 40 hours, 100 hours, or even Pandora One.

          Why don’t people just use Slacker internet radio instead? If offers unlimited usage for free, no daily skip limits (though 6 per hour) and it has much better options for building a station.

          • Matt O says:

            Just so everyone knows, Pandora gets charged by each song played by anyone, registered or not. and not a one time charge per song, but everytime you listen to it, that costs them royalties. They deserve to charge for such a relatively low price service.

          • Casey says:

            Yes Matt O, they do get charged per song. They also get money every time you hear and advertisement. The point here was that bypassing a limit which doesn’t even exist anymore, did not hurt them. Not at all. They actually made money from it, which is why they got rid of it with the update and proudly proclaimed how this will result in more revenue.

        • bystander says:

          lol fried….

      • macd1980 says:

        well said Gabe

    • Autumn says:

      this is a public blog post, found easily through google. All the poster did was expose a loop hole on Pandora. You think they’re butthurt by it? Well let’s ask another question, has the loophole been closed yet?

      So what, some people are cheap and find and use loopholes. You don’t like it? Then don’t use it. Or better yet, shut up and put up the money to subscribe to Pandora to help make up the loss. I’ve bought and paid for Pandora’s yearly subscription. It’s worth it to me.

      Oh by the way, people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. It’s not like you’re perfect.

    • dan says:

      The reason to work around the $1/month has nothing to do with the fee. Having your credit card on file in the cloud is the most negligent thing one can do as a consumer.

      Smarten up bro ;-)

    • Ro says:

      I googled “pandora limit” and was THRILLED to find someone who’d posted a way to get around it. For all those getting up in arms, I say get over it.

    • kc says:

      There are commercials I am happy to listen to That should pay for the content why do the have to vig me for a buck a month?

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