paidContent.org - @ EconSM: More Audio Ads Likely Coming To Pandora

Discussion Policy

Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

Joseph Tartakoff

paidContent.org
Friday, May 15, 2009; 10:07 AM

As Pandora's audience begins to mirror that of radio listeners at large, the company will likely run additional audio ads, Pandora CEO Joe Kennedy said at the econSM Conference Thursday. Currently, Pandora runs only a small number of audio ads, he said.

Kennedy said that increasingly people are listening to Pandora radio outside their PCs. "We don't want you looking at an ad while you're driving," he said. "Pandora is not just something you do on the computer; it's something you listen to on the home stereo, something you listen to in the car, so we will utilize a wide range of advertising forms." Kennedy also said the company was looking at introducing additional premium subscription offerings, although it continues to believe that the "vast majority" of Pandora users will access it via a free, advertising-supported model.

He also listed a set of statistics to demonstrate the service's success on smart phones. Among them: On a daily basis, about 400,000 people listen to Pandora on the iPhone or Blackberry. The average length of a session is one hour, 40 minutes. And iPhone users are disproportionately likely to buy music via Pandora, compared to web users.

As for why Pandora isn't yet available on Android phones, Kennedy said that the company had not been impressed with Android so far from an "audio streaming standpoint."