When I came home this evening I saw an email from Pandora that brightened my day. I usually dislike feature change emails from services I am subscribed to, but this wasn’t the case with Pandora.

Basically it told me that they won a court case to provide music in exchange for cheaper royalties (a reversal of a earlier court ruling) that allows them to cover most streaming via ads. But since I am a high volume user I won’t be able to get all my music in exchange for ads. They then gave me two priced and non-price options. The email was a great way to communicate even seemingly bad information to me (I may have to pay). Here is why it worked:

• it was succinct and to the point, in stark contract to the usual company goobledegook descriptions of what companies think will be important to me
• it gave me options, both free and paid
• it gave me options in bulleted format making them pop out
• it clearly defined the pros and cons of options
• it made me feel great because it saved me time

Here’s a screenshot: Way to go Pandora!

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