Pandora has introduced a program for universities that challenges students to put its internal data to work in creating social change. The Pandora Challenge: Music & Social Impact program will take place at five schools, and participants will work to drive awareness for cancer patients, LGTBQ equality, and other underserved communities through music. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Two BBC Radio execs talk about broadcast and streaming. Pandora’s new CEO chats to Billboard. Taylor Swift is best buds with Spotify now. Continue Reading
Pandora and Sirius XM have closed the strategic investment announced in June. Sirius XM has purchased 307-million Series A shares of P stock for a $480-million investment in the internet radio firm. At the same time, Sirius execs James E. Meyer (CEO), David J. Frear (CFO) and Gregory B. Maffei (Chairman) joined the Pandora board. Maffei is now chairman of both companies. Continue Reading
Pandora has rolled out its Video Plus ad product to all advertisers. This option means that brands only pay when users watch 15 seconds of a video ad. In exchange, the viewer temporarily unlocks listening features that would typically be available only for Pandora Plus or Pandora Premium subscribers. Continue Reading
Pandora is getting a new data onboarding portal for brands to deliver their messages to listeners. Real-time information services company Neustar is building the self-service portal for advertisers to upload their data to Pandora at scale and help those brands to build up audiences. Continue Reading
Pandora has entered a partnership with fitness wearable company Fitbit to be the exclusive streaming music provider for the new Fitbit Ionic. Through this arrangement, subscribers to Pandora Plus and Pandora Premium tiers can sync workout stations or their top created stations directly to a Fitbit Ionic without needing their phones. Continue Reading
Pandora is exploring new approaches to improving its audio ads. The latest experiment is a shift in the length of ads, investigating whether short spots can still yield positive results with listeners. Based on the early findings from Pandora, ad recall had double-digit increases for both 10-second and 30-second spots. Continue Reading
Pandora announced that Roger Lynch, Founding CEO of Sling TV, is the new Chief Executive of Pandora starting September 18. Lynch will replace Interim CEO Naveen Chopra, who will resume his previous role as CFO. The announcement came just after the U.S. market close. P stock is up over 4% at this writing, in the after-hours market. Continue Reading
Pandora has added to the smart speaker research hitting the industry this year with the first release of information from a commissioned survey by Edison Research examining how consumers use Amazon Alexa and Google Home devices. The survey was conducted with interesting methodology, essentially reinventing the listening diary concept. Continue Reading
Spotify has hired Jane Huxley as its new managing director for Australia and New Zealand. She will start in this position on Sept. 1. The MD role was most recently held by Kate Vale, who departed Spotify in May after a five-year tenure. The hire is extra noteworthy coming on the heels of Pandora’s ANZ shutdown. Continue Reading
A month after Pandora turned a corner with a new CEO, new board members, and new minority owner, the company released Q2 earnings. During the webcast investor call interim Chief Executive Naveen Chopra went through the basic financial metrics and took questions from investors. Click through for key points in the Q&A. Continue Reading
Pandora has posted its financial results for Q2 2017. The audio company’s performance over the three month period showed growth in several important metrics, although its sale of Ticketfly did have an impact. Continue Reading