by: Andrea Lopez

 

---

ADDRESS/CONTACT

---

2101 Webster Street, 16th Floor                                                                               Oakland, CA 94612

Tel: (510) 451-4100                                                                        http://www.pandora.com/

---

COMPANY PROFILE

---

Pandora is a free progressive music service provider that strives to provide a top of the line variety of music experience to its listeners. Through Pandora, people can experience a personalized interactive experience with the music of their choice on their devices at anytime and any place. [3] 

                                  •

By way of a devised system, better known as “The Human Genome Project,” Pandora has enabled listeners to plant a seed -selecting an artist, song, or genre of their choice that will then generate music of the same genre for the listener. [3] This is all composed through a music taxonomy system created through Pandora, ultimately creating a positive listener experience. [5]

---

    OPERATING PANDORA

---

Free to sign up for users, Pandora enables listeners to create up to 100 stations depending on their musical preference. By searching an artist, genre, or song, users can create station that will play only music similar to the item searched. The image below exhibits a user’s profile with their selected stations on the left hand side.

Image of Users Profile [6]

---

BRIEF HISTORY

---

Founded in 2000 by Tim Westergren, Pandora is rooted in Oakland, CA where the company opened their first offices [7]. In less than a decade, Pandora had impressively raked up approximately 30 million registered users and earned $40 million in revenues [8].

•

Back in 2009, Pandora opened a new world for their users when they introduced the ad-free radio service for 36 dollars/year, Pandora One. However, between 2009 -2013, Pandora experienced an increase in rising licensing costs to SoundExchange, currently still growing. With these new setbacks, Pandora has now increased their monthly subscription from $3.99 to $4.99. Current subscribers are safe for now with their $3.99 monthly payment, but by 2015, the going rate with be the same across the boards with subscribers [8].    

Since the beginning, Pandora has strived to allow an easy streamline service to its users through its free subscription, and now ad-free subscription, which in 2013 was reported to have reached 72 million monthly listeners. [9]

---

KEY EXECUTIVES

---

 

---

FINANCIALS

---

As reported in the SQ Press Release of Financial Results, Pandora reached 218.9 Million dollars in total revenue and is projected to reach 895 Million – 915 Million for the 2014 total yearly revenue [13]. The SQ revenue increased by 38% since the prior year’s SQ revenue results. The suggested increase in revenue is said to have resulted from investments in mobile and local advertising, demonstrated in the 39% advertising revenue increase and the 35% yearly revenue increase in subscriptions [14].

Pandora Financial Revenue Growth from ’12-Q1’14                                                                          Courtesy of www.tctechcrunch2011.com [15]

Pandora’s yearly revenue over a two year span between 2012 and 2014 indicates approximately a 50 million dollar increase. Initially, when Pandora was first launched, they experienced far less competition. As more and more music streaming companies are introduced into the market, Pandora, although still providing service to a plethora of  devoted users, has experienced somewhat of a sluggish increase of revenue despite what was predicted for the company.

---

COMPETITORS

---

Over the years, Pandora has grown exponentially as a company and dominated in its listener audience numbers compared to its competitors. Among Pandora’s competitors, including iHeart Radio, Spotify,Google Play All Access, Rhapsody,and Slacker, Pandora still exhibited exceeding results in the Edison Research study taken in March 2014 [16]. iHeart Radio, Pandora’s most prominent competitor reported to have 9% of the listener population, while Pandora ranked in                           at 31% of the listener population. Over 2,000 people were interviewed for the Edison Study with a demographic of individuals raging in ages from 12 +. [18]

Click here to read about Forbes content contributor Amadou Diallo‘s personal opinions when comparing three different music streaming services: iTunes Radio, Pandora And Spotify.

---

PANDORA PLATFORMS

---

Pandora is now available in car radio systems, cellular devices, iPads, laptops to even Blu-ray players. This multi faceted, multi-platform side of Pandora allows for so many options for users to stream their music. [19] It was reported in 2009 that Pandora’s 43 million users accessed their accounts on 100 different consumer devices other than a computer [20]. This is simply a number that demonstrates just how widely attainable streaming music is across  different platforms.

---

PANDORA’S POPULARITY

---

For such a wide scope of listeners in terms of age, Pandora has provided a great service, largely due to the interactive qualities of the site. Not only does Pandora possess the users  profile information about them, the company also takes note of the user’s music preference and times they are actively listening. Through the “thumbs up, thumbs down” buttons on the users profile, further explained at 13:50 of this video, Pandora receives information on media you both like and disliked. [22]

---

NOW, & WHAT’S AHEAD

---

Pandora’s great success has not only sustained  its current prosperity, but promises for it’s bright future as well. In the interview conducted at Hivios first ever Radio Ideas Festival in 2013 between Mark Ramsey and Pandora CTO Tom Conrad, the future plans of the company are somewhat touched upon. Not only is Pandora certainly withstanding any threats from competitors today,but the executive board is constantly looking for new ways of improvement. Conrad alludes to Pandora’s hopes and explorations into livening up the interactive aspects of the site. He goes on to explain the possibility of venturing outside the lines of music and comedy and delving into sports entertainment and possibly weather.

Further explained is Pandora’s intentions of understanding their audiences to a higher level. Already Pandora has taken exceptional steps towards fully emerging their users into an interactive world where their music preferences are key, but Tom Conrad foreshadows taking the leaps as Facebook has when it comes to audience fragmentation. This meaning that listeners are divided based on interest. From this, Pandora understands their audience better catering to their needs and wants.

What's Ahead for Pandora? CTO Tom Conrad talks to Mark Ramsey [23] 

 Look Below for question conducted in the interview:

A recent article titled “Will Pandora Survive 2015,”  explains the possible decline of streaming music sites due to the increase in royalty rates. [24] With this possibility, it could be possible for Pandora to steer clear merging with big names in the industry like Apple, and instead conducting business with a small scale radio broadcaster, ultimately conserving revenue. [24]. Although, it is safe to say that with constant new artists, no matter big or small, someone, somewhere desires to be noticed. Music is constantly created, therefore driving the industry.

Sources:

[1] Pandora Company Image, Loadthegame.com, RT: 11/15/2014

[2] Pandora App Icon, Pandoraradioformac.com, RT: 11/15/2014

[3] Pandora Company Profile, Press.Pandora.com, RT: 11/16/2014

[4] Pandora Music Genome Project Photo, Indirest.com, RT: 11/15/2014

[5] About Pandora, Pandora.com, RT: 11/20/2014

[6] Pandora Image Profile, Dailytech.com, RT: 11/15/2014

[7] Pandora Biography, Investor.Pandora.com, RT: 11/17/2014\

[8] The Verge:Pandora Raises Fees, Theverge.com, RT: 11/17/2014

[9] Pandora Radio Dominence, Theverge.com, RT 11/17/2014

[10] Brian McAndrews, Rightstartups.com, RT: 11/15/2014

[11] Mike Herring, Cnet2.com. RT:  11/25/2014

[12] Tim Westegren, Kinja.com, RT: 11/15/2014

[13] Pandora Investing, Investor.Pandora.com, RT: 11/27/2014

[14] Pandora Investing PDF, Investor.pandora.com, RT:11/27/2014

[15] PandoraRevenueImage, tctechcrunch.com, RT: 11/25/2014

[16] Pandora ups subscription price as competition build, washingtonpost.com, RT: 11/30/2104

[17] Graph of Edison Survey Results, marketrealist.com, RT: 11/30/2014

[18] Online Radio Habits, Edisonresearch.com, RT: 11/25/2014

[19] Pandora Radio’s Dominance Built On Big Data Edge, forbes.com, RT: 11/26/2014

[20] Pandora: Now Playing Everywhere, gigaom.com, RT: 11/27/2014

[21] Pandora’s Many Platforms Image, gigaom.com, RT: 11/27/2014

22] Pandora’s Guide to Mobile App Platforms, gigaom.com, RT: 11/27/2014

[23] Interview Video, vimeo.com. RT: 11/30/2014

[24] Will Pandora survive 2015?, qz.com, RT: 11/30/2014

 

http://advertising.pandora.com