Big Numbers Aren't Alleviating Pandora's Financial Woes
Big Numbers Aren't Alleviating Pandora's Financial Woes
Posted 10/11/2011 at 2:50pm
| by Ryan Whitwam
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Music streaming service Pandora has taken heat as of late despite being one of the most downloaded apps on most mobile platforms. The problem is that as time goes on, investors are becoming increasingly skittish regarding Pandora’s ad revenue. At present, the company is not expected to turn an annual profit until 2014. As a result, Pandora’s stock price has tumbled 16 percent in recent months.
Pandora has 23 million active users, but the problem is the ad model in use. Pandora is attempting to blend short audio clips, sidebar ads, and videos into an unholy conglomeration of consumerism. Companies just aren’t used to running campaigns like that. It also doesn’t help that Pandora lacks ad sales staff in many large markets in the US.
Pandora’s recent decision to lift the 40 hour listening cap could pay off, with a projected gain of $53 million over the next four years. The company is also investigating integrating the service into cars, which would allow it to steal come revenue away from terrestrial and satellite radio.
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Holly Golightly
October 11, 2011 at 3:31pm
What we need is an Ad-Free radio with no caps. Since Spotify requires a dummy facebook account to work, I would rather seek a better alternative. I want a free radio with no ads. Tired of paying for everything.
livebriand
October 11, 2011 at 5:08pm
But if there are no ads and it's free, how do they pay for it? If you want no ads on Pandora, get the paid version, $36/year. That's $3/month. Not a bad deal for what it is. That said, I'm fine with the free version. Perhaps if they put in more ads (along the side of the page like most sites, maybe background, as long as they're not as top because that hurts on a 1366x768 laptop screen and then I'll block them). I mean, regular radio stations have ad breaks that are 3 minutes long, Pandora just puts in an occosional 20 second ad clip. I could stand more.
Holly Golightly
October 11, 2011 at 8:19pm
I do not mind things like banner ads to fund their company. Because banner ads do not take away from the overall listening experience. I also have the same resolution you have, but stretched out onto a 32" TV, so advertisements are a terrible experience for me, and would prefer an ad-free experience overall. Most of the ads are irrelevant to me, so it is not like I will click them. Ads are usually the same thing. Some fast food restaurant, diet pills, some bank, celebrities, or something that requires a survey for a free console... The ads really annoy the users in my opinion, which less users means of a probability of earning profit, in my opinion. All I ask for is an ad-free listening experience that I do not have to pay for.
Holly Golightly
October 12, 2011 at 1:31pm
I'm 27 years old right now.
Lots of good things come free now-a-days. Free email, free phones, heck man... They even have free education! Tune-In Radio has Ad-Free radio stations. Now there are a few games that are Free To Play. My question is... How old are you?
HiGHRoLLeR038
October 12, 2011 at 9:45pm
free email has advertising. Phones have contracts - you dont pay anything upfront for pandora (compared to free phone), but you can pay for a membership (compared to phone contract). And if you dont have a phone contract, your gonna pay for those minutes one at a time. do you want to pay-per-song?
Holly Golightly
October 12, 2011 at 10:22pm
No, I want unlimited songs for free. Last.FM was like this. Why not Pandora? I like TuneIn radio very much because I can hear the songs I like, free of ads and all without contracts. I already cut off my cable, no longer believed in paying for it. And I will cut off my phone soon enough. I will just use Crystal TV program to watch my shows and use skype for all my calls. The future is now, we just don't know it yet. Imagine a world, where you can listen to radio for free, watch TV for free and make phone calls for free? There are other ways to generate revenue without distracting the consumer.
HiGHRoLLeR038
October 14, 2011 at 2:51pm
This isnt utopia or some science fiction movie where everything is perfect, clean, peaceful, graceful, and Free. This is corporate america. Without consumers to buy into a company's services or products, they wouldnt be around that long would they? Name one company that survives and is raking in money without 'distracting the consumer'?
Holly Golightly
October 14, 2011 at 3:56pm
Then maybe people should do things out of their heart and not for a profit. I named several businesses that are absolutely for free with no ads at all. If they can do it. Everyone else can. Money (as you should know) is the root of all evil.
Morete
October 11, 2011 at 3:09pm
It may help if they went with an ad based imeem style of a music application instead of the way they do it now. More revenue could be generated if they would give the option of letting users pick the exact songs they want to listen to all of the time instead of being forced to listen to a random string of content all day.
HiGHRoLLeR038
October 11, 2011 at 3:32pm
if you want to add your own custom songs to a custom playlist, then go with grooveshark. I love pandora, you select an artist you like, and it plays similar music. Ive discovered many new bands that i like that way. If i wanted to listen to specific songs, i would listen to my own music in itunes lol.
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