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Pandora CEO: No Plans To Sell Company: On Path To Do Something Big (venturebeat.com)

Posted by msmash on from the don't-write-it-off-just-yet dept.

Chris O'Brien, reporting for VentureBeat: Making one of his biggest public appearances since returning to Pandora as CEO, Tim Westergren struck a defiant tone -- insisting that the company is not for sale and is, in fact, on the cusp of a reinventing itself. "We are on a path to do something big and something for the long-term," Westergren said when asked on stage about sale rumors. "Tha's why I got back in the saddle, so no plans for that." Pandora, with its Internet radio format, has been a music streaming pioneer. Founded in 2000, it survived the dot-com bust and enjoyed explosive growth following the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 and the ensuing smartphone era. Pandora's rise was capped by a big IPO in 2011. But as a public company, Pandora has struggled to show consistent profits and growth. It is often buffeted on one side by artists who claim they are not being paid fairly and on the other by new entrants such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon who offer on-demand streaming services.

32 comments

  1. Come on, Manish! Edit properly, please! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Manish, can you please check the submissions more thoroughly?

    We shouldn't see blatant grammatical errors like:

    on the cusp of a reinventing itself

    And we should not see blatant spelling mistakes like:

    "Tha's why I got back in the saddle

    It's your duty, as an editor, to check, double-check, triple-check, and quadruple-check each submission to ensure that it's perfect, and only then should it appear on the front page.

    1. Re:Come on, Manish! Edit properly, please! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck you!; he can do what he's wants.

      -EditorDavid

    2. Re: Come on, Manish! Edit properly, please! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a fucking copy and paste job. Except, of course, that the spelling error isn't in the original story. The grammatical error was in the original story. But I'm struggling to understand how a copy and paste job introduces a spelling error. Besides, unless the summary was submitted to Slashdot by its original author (it wasn't), this is plagiarism.

    3. Re: Come on, Manish! Edit properly, please! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck you. He can does what we wanted.

      --Cmdr Taco 2.0

  2. Pandora's Path to Something Big by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Pandora is on a path to something big. They're on a path toward a massive bankruptcy. When so much of your revenue comes from advertising and your content producers no longer are as willing to license the content, your business is in trouble. Pandora will be bankrupt in the not to distant future.

    1. Re:Pandora's Path to Something Big by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's the ads. There are so many ads. Might as well listen the actual radio as the experience and choice is the same.

    2. Re:Pandora's Path to Something Big by b0bby · · Score: 1

      I've been paying them ~$4 a month for years to avoid the ads. Over the last few years, though, they don't really seem to have expanded their offerings much and I get pretty sick of the same heavy rotation.
      I remember reading that paying customers are a tiny percent of their users, and that they actually make more money from ads per non-subscriber, so I'm sure they won't miss me when I cancel.

  3. Never Believe Anything by turkeydance · · Score: 2

    Until It Is Officially Denied http://quoteinvestigator.com/2...

  4. Something big: Copy of Spotify by skaag · · Score: 0

    Pandora is such a piece of crap compared to newer entrants like Spotify, it will take massive efforts for Pandora just to copy them. Spotify is years ahead with their tech.

    I will be surprised and impressed even if all they do is copy Spotify 1:1, but something tells me they aren't going to be able to do that, and will end up getting delisted from their stock exchange.

    --

    All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... time... to... die...

    1. Re:Something big: Copy of Spotify by fluffernutter · · Score: 2

      I've made playlists in other radio sites and they just seem to play other artists in the same genre which is never really what I want. Pandora was the only one I knew which would actually match by the qualities of the songs I chose regardless of the artist, therefore it was the only one I used.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    2. Re:Something big: Copy of Spotify by UoNTidal · · Score: 1

      Pandora is such a piece of crap compared to newer entrants like Spotify, it will take massive efforts for Pandora just to copy them. Spotify is years ahead with their tech.

      Pandora bought Rdio's technology last year - all it would take is a new licencing deal to launch a new streaming service.

    3. Re:Something big: Copy of Spotify by skaag · · Score: 1

      Pandora does not have a content problem, they always had great content. They have a usability/features problem.
      I abandoned Pandora in favor of Spotify because I got fed up with how miserable and limited the client software was.

      --

      All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... time... to... die...

    4. Re:Something big: Copy of Spotify by skaag · · Score: 1

      I believe they curate the stations, manually. When you listen to a a Pandora station, someone carefully and thoughtfully associated other tracks to the tracks you liked. It's also somewhat enriched by feedback from other listeners.

      Still, their client software is miserably lacking in features. All it takes is trying Spotify for a week or two, to realize how much more advanced they are. It's like a Tesla car vs. an old steam car.

      --

      All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... time... to... die...

    5. Re:Something big: Copy of Spotify by TFlan91 · · Score: 1

      Do you really need anything more than play/pause and skip?

      I've used Pandora Desktop for yeeearrsss and have never had a "fuck this" issue with it. I like its simplicity, it does feel a bit old now that I'm thinking about it and I'm not a fan of Adobe Air....

      but it works. No ads, no memory hungry web browser, just straight up music.

      *cough* please allow me to add more than 100 stations. Although I don't mind going down memory lane in my quest to delete the most irrelevant station, database storage costs fractions of a penny! *cough*

    6. Re:Something big: Copy of Spotify by skaag · · Score: 1

      I thought the same as you, but when you use Spotify for a while your eyes open. For example I play my favorite play list at the office, from Desktop Spotify, when I go to the car and start spotify, it will pick up where I left off, and it even offers to switch from Amazon's Echo (which is what I use at the office) back to the car.

      Also, you get user curated playlists. There's a movie you liked? Someone probably made a playlist around that movie. Prince died? Someone made a "Prince's Best" playlist. You love Japanese Meditative music? Someone made a playlist for that.

      Do you like to sing along some of your tracks? or at the very least see the lyrics? Spotify does that, and it's synchronized with the actual singing! (Karaoke style). There's a song without lyrics, but you know the lyrics? They have an editor!

      Also: Not ALL tracks are on Pandora or even Spotify. You have your own mp3 files? They can be added to your favorite playlist! This one was important for me because when my Mac still had a CD-Rom drive, I used iTunes to sample many of my CD's into MP3 files (because CD's don't last forever, they scratch, etc, it's good to have a backup).

      Finally, and this one was a big one: Offline mode!!! You like a certain playlist or radio? Hit that "Available Offline" button and you're set! Your phone has massive storage, why not use that to cache all of your favorite music for those moments where you are without wifi, and cellular reception is spotty?

      This is just the tip of the iceberg. I suggest you try it out before you settle.

      --

      All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... time... to... die...

    7. Re:Something big: Copy of Spotify by TFlan91 · · Score: 1

      > This is just the tip of the iceberg. I suggest you try it out before you settle.

      It does sound nifty, and I will, but I don't nearly have the musical footprint or domain of device capability that would allow me to take advantage of half those features as you do.

      I have a feeling it will be like the mentality of a flip-phone to smartphone conversion.

  5. Both are shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The engine that ran all CBS radio properties, AOL Radio and Yahoo radio was and still is lightyears ahead of these shit engines.

    While it all boils down to what licensing deals you can get in place for content, the suggestion engine is the only heart of the beast that matters, as anybody can make a fucking Playlist of your choosing.

    But since CBS online is staffed by a bunch of c - tier Canadian "engineers", they dropped the ball on what could have been the pinnacle of mobile music.

    1. Re:Both are shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Pandora's major problem is that you can't use it offline, even if you pay.

      Both Spotify and Amazon Prime Music let you download music for later payback if you pay for the service. This is very useful when you want to play music in any scenario where you either don't have internet access or don't want to waste data on it. Such as while on a road trip or when going out for a run.

      Which means I never use Pandora, regardless of how good or bad their suggestion engine may be.

      Then again, the last time I used Pandora their suggestion engine seemed to be pretty shitty anyway, so you're probably right that their suggestion tech is shitty too. But it's not why they're dying.

    2. Re:Both are shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Same anon, in right on both accounts, as the file access to use songs offline is also part of the licensing agreement. Buffering songs means they exist on your device.

  6. you pay for what you get by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I subscribe for a whopping $4/mo and am quite happy with Pandora. Listen to many channels all day while at work. Great product and the selection engine rocks as far as I am concerned.

    1. Re:you pay for what you get by fluffernutter · · Score: 2

      I just commented the same above. I haven't tried all the radio services.. for one thing I got turned off of Spotify because of the Facebook relationship. None of the services seemed to match by song quality.. Pandora was the only service that gave me other songs that were good accompaniments with each other. The other sites just seemed to go by artist genre.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    2. Re:you pay for what you get by Pascoea · · Score: 2

      Pandora was the only service that gave me other songs that were good accompaniments with each other. The other sites just seemed to go by artist genre.

      Same experience. I love Pandora for their ability to not play crap I don't like. I have 4 different stations "trained" pretty well, for different moods.

      Biggest complaints:
      1: I can't just play a song I want to hear.
      2: Even paying for Pandora One, you still are limited in the number of skips.
      3: No way to "turn off" things I don't like, such as acoustic tracks, or live music.

      Mash together Google's music service (or Spotify, or whatever) with Pandora's ability to "match" content and you'd have a gold mine. It doesn't fix all of the problems as above, but it would come closer than anything I've found.

    3. Re:you pay for what you get by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can't just play a song I want to hear

      The very first casualty of any online streaming service. It happens Every. Single. Time. Last.fm used to have a player that allowed some control over your playlist. It got cut off at the knees. Pandora used to allow user control over playlists. Axed. Soundcloud... who knows.. f*ck it. They push social media bull crap. Jump ship as soon as *any* of this happens. You *know* the MPAA has grabbed them by the short 'n curlies at that point and everything else is just a downward spiral to rush-hour car FM radio with the "latest hits" playing every half-hour whether you like it or not.

      CAPTCHA: sickroom (damn straight.)

    4. Re:you pay for what you get by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wrong 4 letter group... you mean RIAA.

  7. Die already. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm tired of having to support your shitty crashprone lockup error app for relatives.

  8. Something big by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hey Tim, here's your something big: offer your service to the UK like you did back in... ohh 2008-2009?

  9. What's a Pandora? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dear Pandora Visitor,

    We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.

    It's been like this for about a decade. I've completely forgotten they exist. It says something about it for my car stereo. I didn't even know their brand still did internet music. How do they exist with such a limited market?

  10. Golden parachute by BitZtream · · Score: 0

    He means their going to go out of business in an epic way while he floats down and a nice cushy bunch of money he made when conning idiots to invest money in a shitty form of radio that requires far more resources, provides no benefits, and to top it off, is proprietary as all hell.

    Sorry, Pandora is a dumb idea. It was a dumb idea when we dicked around with it in the late 90s (internet radio), its a dumb idea now. The only people that rave about this crap are a small group of rabid fanboys who just don't realize that its not special and the people who stand to make money off of it.

    --
    Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
    1. Re:Golden parachute by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a plane! It's a blimp! No, it's bitztream, the autism-hating Slashdot troll!

  11. Launch in Canada? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They've finally figured out Canadians exist and mostly listen to the same music as Americans

  12. rdio! by ioev · · Score: 1

    Considering Pandora bought out rdio, and rdio was (IMHO) the best streaming site out there, I'm actually a little excited to hear that they are actually planning to do something. If it were a relaunch of something comparable to rdio, and it were available in Canada, I'd subscribe in a heartbeat.