Businessweek

Pandora Media, Inc. provides an Internet radio service in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. The company has developed a form of radio that uses intrinsic qualities of music to create stations that then adapt playlists in real-time based on the individual feedback of each listener. As of January 31, 2013, it had approximately 175 million registered users. Service The company provides the Pandora service through two models, such as Free Service and Pandora One. Free Service: The company’s free service is advertising-based and allows listeners access to its music and comedy catalogs, and personalized playlist generating system for free across its delivery platforms. Pandora One: Pandora One eliminates external advertising from any device used to access the company’s service. Pandora One allows unlimited listening time and provides access to 192 kbps audio on supported devices. The company’s service also incorporates community social networking features. Its music feed feature enables a real-time, centralized stream for listeners to view the music that their social connections are experiencing and to provide and receive recommendations for songs, albums, and artists. In 2012, the company announced the redesign of its mobile listener interface, Pandora 4.0, on both IOS and Android smartphones, which included expanding listening functionality, artist pages, personal music profiles, and sharing capabilities. Distribution and Partnerships The company makes the Pandora service available through various distribution channels. In addition to streaming its service to traditional computers, the company has developed Pandora mobile device applications (apps) for smartphones, such as Android, Blackberry, and the iPhone, and for tablets, including the iPad, Android tablets, and Amazon Kindle Fire tablets. The company distributes those mobile apps free to listeners through app stores. Pandora is available on approximately 1,000 integrations, including automobiles, automotive aftermarket devices, and consumer electronic devices. In the consumer electronics space, approximately 760 consumer electronics devices from third-party distribution partners, such as Samsung, Roku, and DirecTV make Pandora available in the home. Majority automotive partners, including Alpine Electronics, Audiovox, Clarion, JVC, Kenwood, Pioneer Sony, incorporate its app into aftermarket radios. The company has also developed relationships with major automobile manufacturers and is available on vehicle models sold by Acura, BMW, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Ford, GMC, Honda, Hyundai, Lexus, Lincoln, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, MINI, Nissan, Scion, Suzuki, and Toyota. Holden Ltd., a subsidiary of General Motors, has also launched the first in-car system in Australia to offer full compatibility with the company. Advertising The company offers a suite of display, audio, and video advertising products across its traditional computer, mobile, and connected device platforms. Its advertising products allow both national and local advertisers to target and connect with listeners based on attributes, including age, gender, zip code, and content preferences, and it provides analytics for its advertisers detailing campaign performance. Display Advertising: The company’s display products offer advertisers opportunities to improve exposure to its listeners through its desktop and mobile service interfaces, which are divided between its tuner containing its player and ‘now playing’ information, and the information space surrounding its tuner. The company’s display ads include banner ads of various sizes and placements depending on platform and listener interaction. Audio Advertising: The company’s audio advertising products allow custom audio messages to be delivered between songs during short ad interludes. Audio ads are available across all of its delivery platforms. Video Advertising: The company’s video advertising products allow delivery of branded messages to engage listeners through in-banner click-initiated videos, videos that automatically play when a listener changes stations or skips a song and opt-in videos that pause the mus