ComScore’s latest data covered trends in the U.S. smartphone market, including an assessment of the most popular apps as of October 2014. Only two music apps make the top 15: Pandora with 41.6% reach and iTunes Radio/iCloud at 21.9% reach. Continue Reading
adStream is an ad-stalking journal in streaming audio.
We usually study audio ads in adStream, but when our eyes are on the screen it is impossible to ignore the steady parade of banner ads in some music services. Interestingly, TUNE released a whitepaper study of the effectiveness of app-download ads. Continue Reading
Pandora updated its iPhone and Android apps, giving user more control of their stations and a shiny new interface to certain functions. The refreshed apps are being roll out incrementally to Pandora’s large listenership, with three percent of users added to the initial beta period. Continue Reading
adStream is an ad-stalking journal in streaming audio.
In the relentless pursuit of streaming ads, we encounter plenty of “companions.” Companion ads are (usually) banners that accompany audio spots in streams. Tracking the banner impressions is difficult, and companions are secondary to audio advertising which interrupts the stream and captures the listener’s attention. We found an interesting one, with a single purpose. Continue Reading
The push and pull between one of the world’s biggest audio publishers, Pandora, and one of its most important content providers, BMI (which represents a large catalog of music on behalf of composers and publishers), logged a new mile-marker last week. At issue is whether Pandora owns a “license-in-effect” to use BMI music. Continue Reading
In a brisk 51-minute conference call with investors yesterday, Pandora described its strategy in the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) proceeding, explained why it thinks music licensing costs (to labels) should be lower, and fielded questions about the company’s key partnership with Merlin labels. Although Pandora executives often speak at investor conferences, and conduct quarterly earnings calls, the single-topic focus of yesterday’s call was unusual. Continue Reading
Pandora was the mobile program with the most time spent in-app, according to the Mobile Metrix Key Measures report from comScore. The data reflected average minutes per visitor for U.S. adults, and Pandora clocked in with 1,271 minutes. It edged out ubiquitous social network Facebook for the top spot and had more than triple the average minutes for Netflix, the app for TV and movie streaming. Continue Reading
Tomorrow, Pandora will discuss the eventful and controversial topic of music licensing in a public conference call with investors. Anyone can dial in. The call comes after webcasters filed their royalty-rate arguments to the Copyright Royalty Board, in which Pandora proposed royalty rates to labels and artists lower than present rates, and about half the amount suggested by SoundExchange in its brief. Continue Reading
iHeartMedia has proposed reducing the royalty rate webcasters pay to artists and labels, cutting the existing rate set for terrestrial webcasters by 80 percent. The suggested royalty amount is less than half of Pandora’s suggested rate, which in turn is about half the rate suggested by SoundExchange, which represents music labels. iHeart’s argument is based on its negotiated deal with Warner Music Group, which provides lower royalty rates in exchange for greater exposure of Warner music. Continue Reading
Roger Lanctot is Associate Director of Strategy Analytics, and a thought leader in the connected-car space. In this guest article, he discusses the competitive in-car triangle of AM/FM, Pandora, and Sirius XM. Continue Reading
STRATA, a media buying platform that connects advertisers with media publishers, has re-positioned Pandora’s ratings profile on its dashboard, separating it from radio stations, according to Inside Radio and RAIN News sources. The action represents the latest twist in a long path of Pandora competing against U.S. broadcast radio for advertising dollars. RAIN spoke to several sources for comment. Continue Reading
As streaming audio advertising gradually becomes more personalized to the listener, localized ads increasingly appear. One solution — registration data — gives audio publishers a way to sell inventory on a regional basis, so listeners in a state or city hear streaming commercials localized at that level. In our recent ad-stalking, we wanted to anecdotally track how much city-localized advertising was delivered by Pandora in a 90-minute listening session. Continue Reading