Pandora shutting down in Australia

Streaming music service Pandora is pulling up stumps in Australia and will no longer work in Australia in just a few weeks.

In a blow to the many who have signed up, or been streaming music from Pandora Aussie listeners simply won’t be able to listen any more.

A spokesperson for Pandora confirmed the closure in a statement saying “After diligent analysis, we have decided to discontinue our operations in Australia and New Zealand and expect to wind down the service for listeners over the next few weeks,”

The reason an office closure means the service shuts down is that they need local music licensing. Just like Netflix before it launched in Australia, the only way to get Pandora in then future will be with a VPN.

They are not the first to fail here, with Rdio, Deezer, Guvera and even JB HI-FI’s own service no longer in operation here.

Spotify and Apple Music are dominant and going no where so there is still plenty of music out there.

Spare a thought for the tens of thousands of people using Holden MyLink and other entertainment systems which had Pandora built into their smartphone integration well before the likes of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.