Why do I hear and see ads?

Free Pandora accounts are primarily supported by advertising, including audio and visual advertisements. Pandora Plus and Premium subscribers will not receive advertisements. If you're interested in a subscription, you can upgrade here.

If you're already a Pandora Plus or Pandora Premium subscriber and are encountering advertisements, there are a few common explanations:

1. Your subscription expired.
2. As a Pandora Plus subscriber, you've triggered a Pandora Premium Session.
3. As a Plus or Premium subscriber, you have Artist and Discovery Messages turned on.
4. You're listening to a podcast.
5. You're logged into the wrong account.

You can find solutions for each of these common issues below. If you aren't able to resolve the issue, please review your bank statement to find the date of your last charge and who charged you (e.g., iTunes), and then contact us with that information. 

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1. Your subscription expired.

If you're suddenly hearing advertisements on your radio stations, your subscription may have expired. This happens most commonly when payment information has changed.

You can resubscribe here. If your account is still upgraded, this link will redirect you to your subscription page.

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2. You've triggered a Pandora Premium Session.

Pandora Plus subscribers who search for content to play on-demand will receive a temporary session of Pandora Premium, funded by an advertisement. You can learn much more about Pandora Premium Sessions here.

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3. You have Artist and Discovery Messages turned on.

If the messages you're receiving are promoting artists on Pandora, concerts in your area, or stations or playlists we think you might like, then you might be receiving "Artist" or "Discovery" messages on your account, rather than advertisements.

These messages are optional, and you can enable and disable them whenever you like.

To disable these messages from a mobile device:

1. Open the Pandora app and go to your Profile.
2. Select the Settings gear.
3. Click on Advanced.
4. Scroll down to Artist Audio Messages. If they are enabled, you will see something like Playing on 15 Stations. Tap that to view which stations have these messages enabled.
5. If there's a particular artist you'd like to continue to hear from, or who you think you might like to see in concert, I'd recommend disabling the artist messages on a station-by-station basis. If you'd prefer to remove all the messages instead, simply turn off the Play Artist Audio Messages toggle.

To disable these messages from the web:

1. Click on the icon (initial or picture) (or small picture) in the upper right corner of your screen. 
2. Select Settings and then Content Settings.
3. From here you can use the toggle for Artist Audio Messages to turn them off completely, or you can select Show Stations to enable or disable the messages on a station-by-station basis. 

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4. You're listening to a podcast.

Some podcasts on Pandora are pre-compressed audio files, so advertisements from the original recording will still be heard. These aren't advertisements through Pandora, but advertisements from the originally published version of the podcast, and cannot be removed or disabled.

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5. You're logged into the wrong Pandora account.

Try signing out and signing back in by visiting your Pandora Settings. Click Account and then Sign Out. Then sign back in with the email address of the Pandora account you used when you upgraded.