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Pandora Posts Second Quarter Results

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GRAMMYs
Dec 2, 2014 - 3:22 pm

Pandora Posts Second Quarter Results
Internet radio service Pandora has posted second-quarter financial gains with revenues of $67 million, a 117 percent year-over-year increase. Advertising revenue totaled $58.3 million, a 118 percent increase, and subscription and other revenues reached $8.7 million, a 112 percent increase compared to last year. Total listening hours reached a record 1.8 billion, a 125 percent year-over-year increase, with Pandora accounting for 3.6 percent of total U.S. radio listening, up from 1.8 percent last year. Despite the growing numbers, Pandora posted an overall $3.2 million loss for the quarter. (8/26)

DJ Mustard performs at Pandora summer festival, 2017

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Pandora's $80 Million Q3 Earnings Tops App Chart

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The Q3 ranking marks the service's first return to the No. 1 slot since 2015
Brian Haack
GRAMMYs
Nov 3, 2017 - 1:54 pm

Pandora's $80 million Q3 revenues for 2017 made it the top-grossing revenue earner for a nongame app, as reported by TechCrunch.

This past April, the streaming service fully launched its new Pandora Premium subscription tier, aimed at competing directly with Apple Music and Spotify — which is thought to be the key driver that helped the service hopscotch its rivals and top the app chart.

According to the data, compiled yearly by SensorTower, Pandora's new premium service helped grow revenues by more than 142 percent year-over-year, amid an industrywide combined revenue growth of 67 percent YOY for all nongaming apps. By comparison, overall YOY growth for Q2 2017 was 57 percent, indicating there's likely still a large amount of market headroom remaining before in-app subscription revenue, and that rate of growth could continue to accelerate into and through Q4.

Android Razer Phone Pumps Up Features For Gamers

Pandora

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Pandora Goes Curated With Streaming Playlists On-Demand

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Still backed by the sophisticated Music Genome Project, Pandora adds new dimensions of data with "wickedly expert curators"
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Oct 30, 2017 - 4:17 pm

Today's announcement that Pandora Premium launched 250 curated playlists turned heads, in part because their streaming service developed without listeners being able to request specific tunes the way people can on Spotify. When Apple Music launched in 2015 it placed a big emphasis on its hip human curators while Pandora seemed to have staked out the machine-driven side of music recommendations.

Pandora's algorithmic back end depends on the Music Genome Project — a way to turn one track's musical properties into a set of several hundred descriptive pieces of data. Based on the analytics of each user's personal preferences, Pandora generates radio-like streaming stations to fit each individual listener. This is still true and has resulted in modern peculiarities like when one spouse prefers their hip new music from Spotify while the other spouse favors country music from Pandora. Although Pandora has led the way, all the major streaming services now hope their personalization-math will make visitors want to return and encourage subscribers to pay.

The copyright-license fees for on-demand selections are higher than for pre-programmed streams, and this is likely why Pandora's featured playlists are only available on its $9.99-monthly Premium tier. It is also related to Spotify's challenges with its business model, because these higher costs make it harder to be profitable. Pandora is leveraging the new work put in by its "wickedly expert curators" to add new stations for its Free and $4.99-monthly Plus tiers. In terms of math, this is going to get interesting because Pandora's personalization analytics will be getting new data from users' interactions with its human curators' work.

In terms of language, Pandora's featured playlists really speak Millennial, and that's fun. So we have new playlists with names like "Heartbreak Reggae," "The TRL Era," and "Flexxx." The wit passes down to free stations with edgy labels like "Keep It Lit," "Hipster Brunch," and "Beast Mode." It can seem fragmented, trying to have something for everybody, but streaming services must grab attention to survive — then learning each individual's preferences narrows down what gets recommended most prominently. So score one for humans. Even math-master Pandora has come around to giving human curators leading roles in answering today's epic question, "What should I stream next?"

Pandora Challenges College Students For Social Impact

Common

Common

Photo: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

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Pandora Challenges College Students For Social Impact

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Partnering with Real Industry, the Pandora Challenge is holding star-powered events at five universities to leverage music data for good causes
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Oct 9, 2017 - 12:07 pm

GRAMMY winners Jack Antonoff and Common, along with BloodPop and Manchester Orchestra are participating with five universities in Pandora Challenge: Music & Social Impact events, held in conjunction with Real Industry.

How 'Sgt. Pepper's' inspired Jack Antonoff

The hands-on workshops provide students with access to data from Pandora's Artist Marketing Platform and Next Big Sound and coaches them through outreach and communication strategies to make a difference for important good causes.

Common will be at New York University's workshop on Oct. 11. On Oct. 21 Antonoff's workshop will be held at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell to promote The Ally Coalition for LGBT equality. Other workshops in the series included BloodPop's Oct. 4 event at University of Southern California and Manchester Orchestra on Oct. 9 at Middle Tennessee State University.

The Oct. 9 event promotes the 1 Million 4 Anna Foundation's work on behalf of Ewing sarcoma cancer sufferers. "It's about being a part of something that is bigger than you can even comprehend … helping people," said Manchester Orchestra lead guitarist Andy Hull.

A fifth workshop is scheduled for Nov. 19 at the Stanford University Innovation Fellows Conference.

"The energy and love of music the students possess is an incredibly powerful combination," said head of Next Big Sound Alex White. "With help from our partners at Real Industry, we're not only harnessing that combination for a good cause but also giving students experience and knowledge they can use to jumpstart their careers in the music industry."

Roger Lynch Talks Pandora's Future, Guitar, Streaming Competition

Roger Lynch photographed in 2016

Roger Lynch

Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

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Roger Lynch Talks Pandora's Future, Guitar, Streaming Competition

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New CEO of Pandora identifies key growth opportunities, eyes streaming competition and reveals how the guitar helped him land his gig in new 'Billboard' interview
Tim McPhate
GRAMMYs
Sep 29, 2017 - 1:42 pm

With new CEO Roger Lynch onboard, Pandora is looking toward a brighter future.

In recent months, founder Tim Westergren resigned his position. A stake in the company was sold to SiriusXM Radio for approximately $500 million. Pandora also withdrew its service from Australia and New Zealand, leaving its sole territory of operation as the U.S.

In a new Billboard interview, the former Sling executive Lynch got candid on key priorities he's looking to tackle, the crowded streaming competition and how his side gig fuels his new day job.

As it relates to technology in the car, Lynch wants to steer Pandora toward more drivers. "Pandora is already tapping into that; we've launched in 190 different vehicle models," said Lynch regarding the service's integration into nearly 200 car models. "That's a significant growth opportunity."

Lynch is also eyeing an increase in Pandora's subscription base by leveraging some of his past experience at Sling and Dish Network. "I've run three subscription businesses, but Sling helped me hone my skills in how to grow subscriptions and get a return on promotion investment in digital, mobile and social marketing," said Lynch. "There will be a focus on direct-to-consumer marketing."

As it relates to streaming competition, Lynch acknowledged it's a crowded field. But he feels there's always room for a dark horse. "If you're only going after the on-demand subscription business, that's a tough place to be because of the number of competitors," he said. "You have to be concerned about Apple and Amazon because of their resources and built-in audience. But never underestimate a focused competitor."

On the side, the 54-year-old Pandora CEO moonlights as a guitarist in his classic-rock band the Merger. Coupled with his business acumen, Lynch sees his music IQ as a tangible benefit. "I'm a businessman first and a musician second," said Lynch, who revealed he's been playing guitar since age 10. "But I'm excited to apply what I've learned to a category I'm passionate about.

"I think [Pandora] liked the fact that I'm a musician. I never thought that playing guitar would get me a job, but I had the feeling it was a factor."

Spotify: Time Capsule Playlist Bottles Your Life In 30 Songs

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