Pandora has introduced a new feature called Artist Audio Messaging that will allow musicians to directly communicate with their fans. Lenny Kravitz is one of the first musicians to have access to the feature, and he used it to introduce a new song. The service is getting a small rollout for now, but the company said it aims to scale it up to more people over time.
“We’re excited by the range of possibilities of what these messages could be: a tour announcement, new album drop, a crowd-funding campaign, the story behind their latest song or simply a thank you to fans for listening,” said founder Tim Westergren in a blog post announcing the feature.
It seems that these messages will appear in radio streams. Based on the screenshot Pandora shared, listeners can opt to mute the artist messaging from their settings.
Pandora has been adding more artist support features to its service, beginning with the launch of the Artist Marketing Program, or Pandora AMP, in October. The rollout offered audience tracking for any musicians playing on the online radio service.