Unblock Pandora Music outside USA

Pandora was one of the first music streaming service to the market. It uses the music genome project to categorize and recommend similar songs to users after learning about their listening habits. The service claims this project makes their radio recommendation engine better than the alternatives. However, it can be quite repetitive and it will not recommend you any new songs unless you upgrade to premium tier.

Pandora operates in the United States and a few other countries. This limits all the other users from using the service. Users can usually use VPN to access Pandora. But, by default, VPN passes all connections from the system through it. It is an overkill. Some VPN services provide split tunnelling, but it is one another app you have to install.

Here we are going to learn to use Pandora on your browser with SOCKS5 proxy. We will also use an extension to limit the proxy pass through for a specific site or container. All the tools and proxy mentioned are free. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work on chrome-like browsers, because it doesn’t support SOCKS5 proxy authentication.

Here are the things we’ll be using:

• Mozilla Firefox Browser
• Firefox Multi-Account Containers
• Container Proxy
• A SOCKS5 Proxy

Step 1. Install Firefox Multi-Account Containers

Multi-Account Containers allow your Firefox to have multiple sandbox for your internet activity. You can login to the same website with two different accounts at the same time by using two different containers. The containers do not interfere with each other’s data. Once activated, pin the addon’s icon to the toolbar. It will make the process much more convenient.

Create a new container and name it Streaming so that you can separate out where pandora should run.

1. Click on the container extension icon on your toolbar
2. Click on Manage container button
3. Add a new container with New Container button
4. Name it Streaming

Step 2. Container Proxy

As multi-account container sandboxes your browsing activity, Container Proxy can assign a specific proxy for each one of your containers. Every tab within the same container will only use the proxy assigned to it.

Step 3. Setup Proxy

This page lists three free SOCKS5 proxy found by our forum user. There could be some data collection, so use a throwaway account for Pandora to mitigate any threats. We will also limit the proxy to a specific Firefox container so the rest of the Firefox will still operate on your local network. It offers 3 locations for its SOCKS5 proxy; Singapore, Netherlands and the USA.

1. Copy the server location, port and credentials for the USA server.
2. Open the Container Proxy settings
3. Use the details from the page to fill the proxy details in the Proxies section.
4. Name it USA SOCKS5 or something easy to remember.

Step 4. Assign proxy to Streaming container

While you’re still on the container proxy settings page.

1. Navigate to Assign tab in the sidebar.
2. Find the Streaming container listing
3. Pick USA SOCKS5 from the dropdown next to it

To check if the proxy is working on the container. Open any IP address checker website for confirmation that you’re now using a US server.

Step 5. Make Pandora always open on the Streaming container

The final requirement to make it convenient, we’ll make pandora open on the `Streaming` container by default. This way, you won’t have to switch to the container every time.

1. Open the Pandora website
2. Open Multi-account container addon in the toolbar while you’re on the same tab
3. Choose `Always open this Site in` option
4. Pick the `Streaming` container from the list

Finally

Now that all things are setup, you can refresh the page and avoid being blocked by Pandora’s geo-block. Login with your throwaway account and start listening.

Happy Listening!