Pandora, for those of you who don’t know, is a free music service that plays streaming music based on your likes and dislikes. You can create channels based on a certain artist, or even a single song. Pandora then finds music that is similar and streams it to you. For free.

The other day, Pandora started playing audio ads in their music stream. Not a lot of ads. Not even a few. Just one or two ads per person per listening experience. So, of course, some people around the web are complaining about this corporate intrusion into their favorite music service.

Give me a break, people. Pandora is free. It’s a fantastic service that you don’t pay for. Are you willing to pay Pandora money to stop putting out ads? You can. There is an inexpensive subscription plan that allows you to do just that. But no, you’re not willing to do that. You’d rather pay nothing and bitch about a few ads. How do you expect them to keep providing free music if they can’t make any money?

Personally, I love Pandora and use it every day. When I heard my first ad, I thought it was a good sign. I’d rather hear a few audio ads then discover one day that Pandora went out of business due to lack of funding. This has happened to several services I love, and I’d hate to see it again.

Rather than condemn Pandora, I applaud them. If they can come up with a sustainable business model that brings me free, personalized streaming music, all the better. Shit, radio is chock full of ads, and you have no say what they play. If you want commercial free radio, get XM or pay to become a Pandora subscriber. Otherwise, sit back, enjoy the music and shut the hell up.