I love Pandora but I won’t pay for it. I simply love the fancy pants option to crank a tune on a whim. I impress my co-workers by blasting the tune they’re singing with just a couple finger taps. We’ve blasted everything from Buck Owens to the Village People shamelessly. So Spotify gets my cash but Pandora gets my heart. Why?
Better ‘radio’ function. Spotify radio is a pain in the ass and the repetition is absurd. So when it comes to mindless music, Pandora got me 40 free hours a month. I can’t see paying for two services, I’m just not that into it.
But you are, you’re paying Pandora and for that I thank you. The internet tune master reported record revenue in the first quarter of the digital music service’s fiscal 2014 calendar year. Total revenue was up by 55 percent to $125.5 million, while advertising revenue grew by 49 percent to $105.1 million. However, Pandora’s loss in the quarter jumped from a $20.2 million loss a year ago to $28.6 million in Q1 ’14. So they’re getting there but they’re not there so keep paying so I can ride on your dime.
Joe Kennedy the CEO of Pandora threw down his resignation notice but also stated the following, “Pandora continues to expand its mobile leadership. Mobile listening hours and mobile ad revenue reached record highs, with growth in mobile ad revenue exceeding growth in mobile listening hours. During the quarter, we successfully implemented a mobile listening limit, enabling us to manage our content acquisition costs with minimal impact on listenership or revenue growth. Pandora’s subscriber base surpassed 2.5 million, adding more net new subscribers in the quarter than in all of fiscal 2013, giving Pandora the largest U.S. streaming subscriber base of any music service