32 Facts About Pandora Radio

Pandora Radio is a freemium service; basic features are free with advertisements or limitations, while additional features, such as improved streaming quality, music downloads and offline channels are offered via paid subscriptions.

Pandora Radio was originally pitched as an e-commerce service that would use Glaser's associated algorithm as a recommendation engine, but this idea was scrapped after the Dot-com bubble hit its peak in March 2000.

In 2011, Pandora Radio went public via an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange.

At the time, Pandora Radio had 800,000 tracks from 80,000 artists in its library and 80 million users.

On September 1,2013, Pandora Radio removed a 40-hour-per-month limitation for free mobile listening.

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On September 15,2016, Pandora Radio launched "Pandora Radio Plus", a new subscription service to compete with other streaming services; the price was set at $4.

In early 2017, Pandora Radio revealed that 56 million of its 81 million active users subscribe to the Today's Country station and that country music accounted for more than 1.

On July 31,2017, Pandora Radio discontinued services in Australia and New Zealand, citing a need to focus solely on the US market.

On February 26,2019, Pandora Radio announced the launch of Pandora Radio Stories, a new marketing tool for artists.

On June 11,2013, Pandora announced it would purchase FM radio station KXMZ in Rapid City, South Dakota.

On October 7,2015, Pandora Radio announced it had acquired independent ticketing agency Ticketfly for $450 million, which it subsequently sold to Eventbrite for $200 million on June 9,2017.

Pandora Radio retained 100 Rdio employees, including Iain Morris and Rich Masio, who joined a growing licensing department in pursuit of direct licenses with labels and publishers.

In March 2018, Pandora Radio announced it would acquire digital audio ad technology firm AdsWizz for $145 million.

Pandora Radio is available in a free advertising-supported service, and a subscription-based tier known as "Pandora Radio Plus", which features offline playback support using a prediction mechanism, and more skips and replays.

In March 2017, a third tier known as "Pandora Radio Premium" was launched, which allows users to listen to and create playlists of individual songs on-demand.

Pandora Radio emphasized a use of machine learning and manual curation, including filtering out low-quality content such as "knock-off covers" and karaoke tracks.

In October 2019, Pandora Radio added full song credits to their app, displaying the data on who contributed to which song.

Second, Pandora Radio pays licensing fees to agencies such as BMI, ASCAP, or SESAC in order to compensate composers, songwriters and publishers.

Lastly, Pandora Radio pays TiVo Corporation for song and artist information; this has recently been structured as a flat monthly fee.

Pandora Radio is currently estimated to monetize mobile hours at roughly one-ninth the rate of desktop hours.

Since Pandora Radio pays the same licensing cost per hour irrespective of the user's platform, the net contribution to earnings per mobile hour is even more skewed with respect to contribution to earnings from desktop hours.

In January 2011, Pandora Radio met with investment banks to consider a possible $100 million IPO.

Not only has Pandora Radio attracted more users but the average number of hours per user have increased.

On November 5,2012, Pandora Radio filed suit in federal district court against ASCAP over royalty fees.

On February 27,2013, Pandora Radio announced a 40-hour-per-month limit on free mobile listening.

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The move was criticized by David Israelite, CEO of the National Music Publishers Association, who declared that Pandora Radio was now "at war with songwriters, " and had lost its credibility because it was resorting to "lawsuits and gimmicks" to make its point.

On September 1,2013, Pandora Radio removed the 40-hour-per-month limit on free mobile listening.

In 2014, Pandora Radio signed an agreement with some music copyright owners for lower royalties in exchange for more frequent streaming of songs.

In 2015, Pandora Radio began playing more advertisements per hour in certain geographies and demographics.

Pandora Radio normally plays no more than 6 advertisements per hour for free users.

Pandora Radio offers its users the option of submitting out of the targeted ads, by an opt-out configuration on its website.

Pandora Radio has created two market segments, one for Spanish listeners, and another for English listeners.