Getting around Pandora’s 40-hour monthly limit
In the past 6 months or so Pandora has implemented listening restrictions on their free service. It's really quite simple to get around this limitation, you just need more than one Pandora account. You might be thinking, well what about my radio stations?? Pandora allows you to share your stations with your friends, just share your stations with yourself. If you don't already have more than one email address, go out to gmail and register a second address, or even a 3rd or 4th. GMail let's you forward all email to a single account, so as an example, I would just set up webguypandora1@gmail.com, webguypandora2@gmail.com, etc. and forward them each back to webguy@greatwebguy.com. Whenever you hit that 40 hour limit, just simply logout and log back in with a different account. You're other option would be to just pay the $36/year subscription 
January 26th, 2010 - 02:03
Pandora’s system is just a bit more complex than making a new email address, actually. You’re utterly wrong.
January 26th, 2010 - 07:31
Well I guess I’ll just keep listening to my utterly wrong music, if all else fails I can delete my cookies or switch browsers, but I’m sure you’re right…LOL
January 26th, 2010 - 09:13
Had to laugh again this morning…I signed out of 1 account and into another without even deleting cookies…
April 30th, 2011 - 07:11
Deleting cookies, web browser, and new accounts don’t work. It’s very apparent that you have NEVER gotten to Pandora’s 40 hr. threshold. Quit acting like you have. thanks.
May 2nd, 2011 - 14:39
@Gary Love it, I probably never do hit the limit anymore. I run an account at home, an account on my iPhone, an account on my iPad, an account at work. Between the 4 accounts I probably don’t hit it just like you say. This article is a year old and things have obviously changed with Pandora and Flash for that matter and how the data is being stored. So I did a little research for you, I opened up two browsers Chrome and Firefox and found that if I logged into 1 it was logging me into both and deduced that the only way this could be possible is if they’re storing data in Flash itself, good news you can delete the flash cookies too, go to this url http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html Look for Pandora.com and delete the data they’ve stored. Http is a stateless protocol, and nothing is passed that can identify a computer or user permanently, it’s just being stored in a shared place, that you probably missed. Thanks for the comment.
February 13th, 2010 - 04:46
actually, i have 3 accounts, and it says that it can only have 40 hours per computer…not email address…and switching browsers didnt help…gotta go delete some files
February 17th, 2010 - 10:50
It is 40 hours per computer, not account. If it was as simple as signing in with different accounts then Pandora nipped that one pretty quick.
The real work around is deleting cookies.
http://osxdaily.com/2009/08/30/how-to-get-around-pandoras-40-hour-music-limit/
February 17th, 2010 - 10:55
Now I’ve heard this twice, but haven’t run into this problem. I’m using Chrome and have never had to delete my cookies to continue using Pandora after my limit is up.
March 30th, 2010 - 09:46
Yeah, the OP is right. I just followed the link and deleted cookies and such. Still had no luck but made a new account and am listening just fine.
April 19th, 2010 - 18:14
If you are having trouble with the 40 hour limit and try switching accounts when after you already reached the 40 hour limit but it still is saying you have reached the limit, what you should try is before getting 40 hours on an account, say 35 hours, you switch accounts, then it will work.
May 3rd, 2010 - 18:27
Couldn’t you just log into http://www.slacker.com?
June 15th, 2010 - 10:11
So I have been tootling around with the OSX work around. I was unable to sign back in with my original email (still showed 4 hours remaining) however after deleting the cookies and pandora.com files I was able to create a new account in pandora (I use Station Ripper AWESOME BTW!) and vuala My new email does show 40 hours. So the way I see it is I should beable to use three email accounts, thats 120 hours of music per month. Also there is a .bat file you can keep on your desk top that will delete the files for you… makes it pretty simple http://tech4eleven.com/549/get-past-pandoras-listening-limit/ Have fun!!
June 30th, 2010 - 20:11
I can also change accounts and keep listening without a problem or having to delete cookies. Also using Chrome, maybe it’s browser specific.
July 21st, 2010 - 12:24
I’m at work using a Windows 2000.
The files are located in a different place I’m assuming since I cant find Macromedia in the “USERNAME” folder.
Any ideas where I can find the files I need to delete on this old computer?
July 25th, 2010 - 10:01
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..
November 17th, 2010 - 18:01
Zeus your my hero!I went the NoScript route. Have to allow facebook.com and fbcdn.net as well or Pandora restarts when you check your facebook. Thanks again
November 25th, 2010 - 09:50
Forget Pandora, there’s so many other free music sites out there! Try Radio Tuna, that’s a good one. http://radiotuna.com/
Or Slacker, but their ads are getting annoying. Also, iTunes has a huge list of free streaming radio services.
There’s so much to choose from, Pandora is not the only choice and if they keep up this limiting of music crap, they’re just going to shoot themselves in the foot eventually.
January 9th, 2011 - 23:33
well, i just got this message a few minutes ago:
“THIS COMPUTER HAS REACHED ITS MONTHLY LIMIT.”
My son and I both have accounts and it is still blocking my computer. Guess i will be returning to iTunes radio and Live365.com.
January 13th, 2011 - 14:45
Article is a year old, it’s definitely possible they’ve improved their application. and like Jack says it’s $3/mo
January 13th, 2011 - 14:33
You guys realize it’s just $3 buck/month right? Geez!
January 15th, 2011 - 13:41
It does work. I was at 38 hours used on one account. Created a new one, and it works fine. A fresh 40 hours. I’m using Firefox. But this works for me. I’d just recommend not letting the hours get completely used up on the one account before you create a new one.
Also- it may just be 3 dollars a month, but some of us are teenagers whose parents hate putting their credit card on websites online. (Mom!)
June 8th, 2011 - 14:23
The Web Guy and Rachael are right. I have 3 accounts and make sure that I don’t run out, so I just switch to the other one.
March 19th, 2011 - 03:54
Grooveshark.com =)
June 10th, 2012 - 12:54
cant argue with great development like that
April 5th, 2011 - 19:12
It is much more simple then you all make it out to be… You just have to sign into an alternative account BEFORE the 40 hours are up. Then you will have another 40 hours. If you wait until the 40 hours are up, then signing into another account wont help. It tracks IP address.
April 14th, 2011 - 20:08
thx…this really does wrk i jst did it rite now!!! x) yayy more free music lol took me a while kuz it kept signing me in but i got it!!! appreciate the info
April 18th, 2011 - 01:28
If you’ve already passed the 40 hours, just open a private window (Incognito on chrome) and go to pandora and you can create a new account.
May 27th, 2011 - 21:59
THIS ^^ worked like a charm
June 29th, 2011 - 02:12
I hot my 40 hr limit and tried doing the “incognito” thing but it doesnt seem to work. Pandora pops up and asks me to sign in just like it does when I open it on my normal browser. What am I doing wrong??
July 5th, 2011 - 14:10
Pandora uses local flash storage to track your usage, you’ll need to use their url to delete the flash storage, I don’t think incognito does anything to prevent flash from storing and retrieving data.
July 22nd, 2011 - 03:28
thanks worked perfect”)
April 18th, 2011 - 01:28
*And listen to the radio as well
August 9th, 2011 - 17:06
They do not monitor time on mobile devices! I have played over 60 hours in a month from my iphone (7 months ago when I had my iphone). I do not know if this has been patched since then, but I would assume not
September 1st, 2011 - 04:44
Apparently, I fell asleep with an auto click on (targeted at the change volume button) to interrupt the “are you listening?” and this is the third night in a row that I have 39 hours left on my account. Perhaps Auslogics Boost Speed has something to do with this? Surely CCleaner would work as well, but still. Just throwing my two cents in, guys.
No luck on the ad free version, but I’m sure that a simple hosts file edit could fix this.
November 8th, 2011 - 11:53
How do I find out how many hours I have in for the month???
November 14th, 2011 - 08:35
Don’t know that you can anymore after the move to HTML5
November 17th, 2011 - 21:08
Look it up on google lik me
November 17th, 2011 - 21:05
Im not sure this answered my question but im fine ill just ask my friend but my question was when ur hours run out will it tell u or wat that question is from me and my step mom :/
awesomeness
November 17th, 2011 - 21:33
Hello does anyone know how u can tell wen ur hours are up on one account???? Plz help im only lik 12!!¡.
December 21st, 2011 - 20:58
Dude, Seriously ? just get a proxy !! now there is a hack app for jailbraked iphones ipads what ever… to skip as much as you want listen as much as you want and skip adds
December 23rd, 2011 - 22:03
“Dude”, you sound like an idiot, learn to spell and write and then you can come criticize. This was a work around written almost 2 years ago, blogs tend to be like that, so pay attention to the date of the article before you start spouting bullshit.
January 3rd, 2012 - 03:06
^^^ lol, for someone who likes to think he knows a lot about forum and message board etiquette , you seem to have forgotten the main point of the internet. Every single type of idiot that can possibly be classified is allowed on the internet. Wasting your time preaching, much like I have fallen to your level of currently preaching to idiots.
January 3rd, 2012 - 05:19
True, true.
February 11th, 2012 - 16:09
jailbroken, not jailbraked
January 7th, 2012 - 08:12
From what I hear now, there is no 40 hour limit anymore, its just more ad’s. And I mean $3/m is less money then your tip at a restaurant, if you eat out at least once a month, then you should be able to cough up the $3.
February 9th, 2012 - 21:07
There are many ways to get around pandoras restrictions. Including there limit on song skips…
February 17th, 2012 - 13:32
OP is a hero.
A hero, for people like you.
People who question.
And for people who prosper.
So when interests differ on supposed subjects, do not blame the bearer of information. Blame yourself for not being able to architect your own system of comprehension. Just as in person you should and will ask nicely for help.
Now stop ya Whining.
+1 @ webguy