In a daring extension of Russia’s growing imperialism, Vladimir Putin today annexed Pandora Radio. The takeover adds turmoil to international tensions which have escalated in recent weeks. Spotify is reportedly amassing troops along its borders, hoping to deter an invasion and a potential domino effect in music services. Continue Reading
Patrick Main is a “Peetnik” — he works for Peet’s Coffee & Tea, a 300-store chain that predates Starbucks. As Bar Quality Manager, Patrick Main is involved in every aspect of the customer experience in a Peet’s store, and a good choice to manage the latest feature — new music soundtracks in collaboration with Pandora. Continue Reading
Pandora has struck a partnership with Peet’s Coffee & Tea, in a new kind of deal for the market-leading Internet radio service. Peet’s is providing four branded, hand-curated stations to Pandora, and also playing those stations continuously in its 111 stores. Continue Reading
Spotify announced today a half-off subscription rate for college students. the normal $9.99/month subscription rate is dropped to $4.99 for qualified students. The announcement comes days after Pandora hiked its subscription price by 25% — to $4.99 per month. Continue Reading
adStream is a journal of ad-spottings in online music services that highlight how commercials (audio and visual) can be an integrated part of the online listening experience. When clicking past a song in the Pandora web app, we noticed a… Continue Reading
The court decision in the ASCAP vs. Pandora royalty-rate trial was released this morning. In the lengthy court document, presiding federal judge Denise Cote explains how ASCAP failed to achieve the escalated royalty rates it sought on behalf of its client publishers and composers. “ASCAP has not carried its burden.” Continue Reading
Pandora announced higher prices for its premium listening plan, Pandora One. The changes result from escalating royalty costs to labels and performers, according to the blog-post announcement, and will take effect for some subscribers this week. The price changes affect 3.3-million premium users, out of 250-million registered users. Continue Reading
Tom Conrad, Chief Technology Officer and EVP of Product at Pandora, announced today via a blog post that he will transition out of his full-time position in three months. Conrad’s double role as technology/product head will be filled by two people going forward. Chris Martin, previously VP of Engineering, is promoted to CTO. Continue Reading
Pandora just saved about $21-million. The recently concluded ASCAP vs. Pandora trial could be framed as a draw, with the disputed royalty rate to publishers maintained. But crunching the arithmetic shows the court decision comes much closer to Pandora’s desired outcome than ASCAP’s, and provides a view of how much money Pandora saved — or ASCAP lost, depending on the viewpoint. Continue Reading
The ASCAP vs. Pandora rate-setting trial, brought before a federal judge to determine how much Pandora must pay music publishers and composers to play recordings of their music, has ended in a preservation of Pandora’s existing rate. While Pandora hoped to lower that rate by a small amount, ASCAP hoped to raise payments by up to 62% Continue Reading
Nielsen-owned (as of February) Harris Interactive conducts an annual nationwide poll of U.S. consumers to determine what it calls “brand equity.” Harris has released the 2014 edition, and called out streaming services for their rapid gain in positive brand recognition over the last two years. Continue Reading
Market-leading Internet radio service Pandora released its monthly audience metrics for January today, showing year-over-year growth in its key metrics. In the short month of February, Pandora reports a larger audience and greater listening share over January’s metrics. Listening hours dropped a bit, but were essentially flat month-over-month. Continue Reading