3 ms·

I don't think it is too surprising. They are bleeding cash and will someday have seriously stiff competition from at least Google, Amazon and Apple. I do hope

I don't think it is too surprising. They are bleeding cash and will someday have seriously stiff competition from at least Google, Amazon and Apple. I do hope they do well; I really enjoy Pandora. But it has been an uphill battle for them to get this far, mostly because content owners are regressive-minded. And the battle will only get a lot more difficult as competition arises in the near future.

jonknee 15y ago
Pandora isn't bleeding cash.
- makmanalp 15y ago
  They're profitable?
  - jtreminio 15y ago
    http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-10433355-261.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-10433355-261.html Looks like they recently turned their first quarterly profit. I love Pandora. It's the app that's being run the most on all my machines (laptop/desktop/android). In my eyes it's completely overpowered things like satellite radio. Google Music is nice, too, but only if you have a large existing library of music, and in my recent experience it's been very slow to jump from one song to the other. I used to listen to Pandora for ~50 hours a month, but since they added in comedy show clips, my usage has jumped up quite dramatically. I absolutely love it.
    - webbruce 15y ago
      I don't think this is correct at all actually: http://www1.realclearmarkets.com/news/reuters/finance_business/2011/Jun/15/with_no_profit__pandora_media_makes_solid_debut.html http://www1.realclearmarkets.com/news/reuters/finance_busine... And their stock price reflects it
    - simonsarris 15y ago
      That doesn't seem right at all. From Reuters yesterday, "Chief Executive Joseph Kennedy said there was no timeline to turn a profit, though a larger audience should eventually attract advertising dollars." http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/15/pandora-idUSN1528387920110615 http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/15/pandora-idUSN15283...
    - ryanhuff 15y ago
      The royalty rate that Pandora pays will increase 10% a year until 2015, which is when their current agreement expires. So, essentially, they have to be 10% better at extracting value out of each song played over the next 3.5 years. All bets are off come 2015. http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/16/tc-teardown-pandora-the-tough-business-of-webcasting/ http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/16/tc-teardown-pandora-the-tou...
- simonsarris 15y ago
  "Pandora is by far the leading Internet radio service, with 80 million registered users, but it has yet to earn a profit and nearly half of its revenues go toward paying royalties to be able to stream music, fees that are set to escalate over the next four years. It had losses of $328,000 in the nine months ending Oct. 31." From an article dating Feb 14th, this year: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118032185?refCatId=1009 http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118032185?refCatId=1009 And from the Reuters story from yesterday: "Chief Executive Joseph Kennedy said there was no timeline to turn a profit, though a larger audience should eventually attract advertising dollars."
  - jonknee 15y ago
    If you consider losing $328,000 in nine months while posting $90M in revenue to be "bleeding cash", I suppose you're right.

jonknee 15y ago

Pandora isn't bleeding cash.

makmanalp 15y ago
They're profitable?
- jtreminio 15y ago
  http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-10433355-261.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-10433355-261.html Looks like they recently turned their first quarterly profit. I love Pandora. It's the app that's being run the most on all my machines (laptop/desktop/android). In my eyes it's completely overpowered things like satellite radio. Google Music is nice, too, but only if you have a large existing library of music, and in my recent experience it's been very slow to jump from one song to the other. I used to listen to Pandora for ~50 hours a month, but since they added in comedy show clips, my usage has jumped up quite dramatically. I absolutely love it.
  - webbruce 15y ago
    I don't think this is correct at all actually: http://www1.realclearmarkets.com/news/reuters/finance_business/2011/Jun/15/with_no_profit__pandora_media_makes_solid_debut.html http://www1.realclearmarkets.com/news/reuters/finance_busine... And their stock price reflects it
  - simonsarris 15y ago
    That doesn't seem right at all. From Reuters yesterday, "Chief Executive Joseph Kennedy said there was no timeline to turn a profit, though a larger audience should eventually attract advertising dollars." http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/15/pandora-idUSN1528387920110615 http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/15/pandora-idUSN15283...
  - ryanhuff 15y ago
    The royalty rate that Pandora pays will increase 10% a year until 2015, which is when their current agreement expires. So, essentially, they have to be 10% better at extracting value out of each song played over the next 3.5 years. All bets are off come 2015. http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/16/tc-teardown-pandora-the-tough-business-of-webcasting/ http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/16/tc-teardown-pandora-the-tou...
simonsarris 15y ago
"Pandora is by far the leading Internet radio service, with 80 million registered users, but it has yet to earn a profit and nearly half of its revenues go toward paying royalties to be able to stream music, fees that are set to escalate over the next four years. It had losses of $328,000 in the nine months ending Oct. 31." From an article dating Feb 14th, this year: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118032185?refCatId=1009 http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118032185?refCatId=1009 And from the Reuters story from yesterday: "Chief Executive Joseph Kennedy said there was no timeline to turn a profit, though a larger audience should eventually attract advertising dollars."
- jonknee 15y ago
  If you consider losing $328,000 in nine months while posting $90M in revenue to be "bleeding cash", I suppose you're right.