“Pandora is replacing AM/FM radio”

A few short weeks ago Tim Westergren, the Founder & CEO of Pandora laid it all out –  “Pandora is replacing AM/FM radio.”

“Pandora is a radio product” he said. “It is replacing a medium — AM/FM radio, which does not compensate artists at all.”

On the compensation point, he was talking US radio which, unlike Australian radio don’t have to fork out licensing fees for playing music.

Tim Westergren was a keynote guest at the recent Midem 2016 – the international music industry conference.

Tim and his company Pandora have always been clear on their intention to take over traditional radio, something he reinforced in the keynote and why it’s a good thing for listeners and musicians alike.

His mission was also clear when he appeared at Midem stating “Who do you want to partner with?”

He talks about the platform being the biggest referrer for music sales to others like iTunes.

“If I were an artist I would push for the migration of listening from broadcast to the web.”

But it goes beyond that, when he talks about their advertising geo-targeting – where a single event is targeted and Pandora’s sales push is beyond subs – which sits at less than $10 Australian a month for an ad free option.

Tim Westergren said:  “We have 2,200 employees. About half of them do nothing but work on advertising selling on Pandora. It’s a massive engine with about 550 sales people….

“We’re going to generate north of $600-million in revenue this year, more than the entire broadcast radio business pays.”  – again the US.

Shots fired?

Watching the full video is worth the effort – he also talks about a listeners “Pain” point and how Pandora plans to convert them from Free accounts to paying.

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