Get all your music streaming finished by July 31, folks, because the first online radio creation service is finishing its tenure in Australia at the end of the month.
It’s time to say goodbye to an old, familiar friend as Pandora announces just when it plans to shut up shop locally, killing off the service for Australians and our friends over in New Zealand, returning to a service that only delivers all-you-can-stream music to the US and the US alone.
Not longer after Pandora announced that it would be pulling out of Australia back in June, the company has decided when it will end its online music delivery in Australia, and the bad news is you don’t have long.
In fact, you have until July 31, which is the date that regardless of if you’re a paid or unpaid subscriber, Pandora’s online music service will end outside of America.
This week, Pandora sent out the news to local subscribers of its service, while also adding a question to its FAQ, noting that:
Pandora will be ending its service to listeners located in Australia and New Zealand on July 31, 2017.
We’re honored to have connected so many Pandora listeners around the world with the music they love. However, on June 27, 2017, we announced that we will be ending the Pandora service in Australia and New Zealand.
Pandora does say that for anyone who paid for the service, you can get a pro-rated refund and grab some of that money back, but that after it ends, the service will cease to work for Australians, raising the question of whether the service will merely lock out accounts signed up in Australia, or whether it will go the extra mile and follow what Hulu does (and what Pandora used to do before it arrived locally) and block users on an IP level.
If the latter is true, it could mean that listeners will have to switch to a virtual private network or “VPN” in order to access their Pandora account. The best bet, however, would be to switch to a different service, of which there are certainly a few to choose from, including Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, and Tidal.
In any case, those of you still using Pandora, enjoy it while it lasts. It appears the Music Genome Project is about to end locally, forcing you into the arms of another music provider.
