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Pandora Stock Surges 25% After User Data-Based Marketing Push (marketwatch.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the music-to-their-ears dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Pandora's stock had its best day ever on Wall Street, rising more than 25% after reporting their subscription and other revenue had surged 61.3 percent to $104.7 million. Previous users have apparently been lured back with targeted marketing touting a new service that lets users briefly play their favorite songs on demand if they'll watch a short ad. "Pandora said it ended the quarter with 5.63 million subscribers to its Pandora Plus and Pandora Platinum paid services, which was 19 percent higher than the same period a year ago," reports one Silicon Valley newspaper. March saw more former users returning than in the same month a year ago -- for the first time in 18 months.

And an important factor was switching from brand-based marketing to data-based marketing -- that is, "using the information that Pandora has on users' listening preferences." Pandora's Chief Executive brags to MarketWatch that "We really have world-class data-science capabilities. We just never used them in our own marketing."
Engadget reports: Revenue for the quarter rose to $319.2 million, up 12 percent over the first quarter of 2017... But Pandora is still losing money. The company posted a net loss of $131.7 million, a slight improvement on the $132.3 million loss in Q1 2017. Overall engagement is down year-over-year, with active listeners dropping 4 percent to 72.3 million. Listener hours dipped from 5.21 billion to 4.96 billion.

32 comments

  1. Do they still... by Type44Q · · Score: 1

    Do they still prevent listening to specific songs??

    1. Re:Do they still... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I know this is Slashdot, home of "we don't read the articles", but it is literally right in the summary: "lets users briefly play their favorite songs on demand if they'll watch a short ad."

    2. Re:Do they still... by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 1

      No. Simply search for a song in the search box (stupidly labeled "Create Station") and you can play it

      --

      "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
    3. Re:Do they still... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      my experience is that you search for a song, it may or may not play it, the staiton you create plays great similar songs and genres for a few hours, then the "pandora Drift" takes place. by the third or fourth hour of listening, 1970s soft rock has become jimmy buffet style country/party music, late 1970s funk, or 1960s doowop. Pandora drift ensures no station plays what you want or expect for very long.

  2. Favorite songs? by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

    I can play my favorite songs on demand WITHOUT ads. Why? Cos I have them stored locally on my device. Imagine that, Pandy-Pandora.

    1. Re:Favorite songs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can play my favorite songs on demand WITHOUT ads too. Because I know how to search on YouTube and use an ad blocker.

    2. Re:Favorite songs? by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      Mine work without data access! HAH!

    3. Re:Favorite songs? by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Mine work without electricity.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  3. Fuck'em by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fuck the ads. And fuck Zuck.

    1. Re: Fuck'em by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Zuck fucks ducks.

  4. 25% nice but not enough by Nkwe · · Score: 3, Informative

    I purchased some Pandora stock about two years ago when it appeared to be at a low and had good prospects. Yesterday's 25% increase now only has me down 24%... This is not a complaint as this sort of investment is a high risk gamble; rather it's an observation that while a 25% increase in a stock price sounds exciting, it has to be taken in context. After yesterday's pop it's about $7 a share. In 2014 it was nearly $40 a share.

    1. Re:25% nice but not enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I purchased some Pandora stock about two years ago when it appeared to be at a low and had good prospects. Yesterday's 25% increase now only has me down 24%... This is not a complaint as this sort of investment is a high risk gamble; rather it's an observation that while a 25% increase in a stock price sounds exciting, it has to be taken in context. After yesterday's pop it's about $7 a share. In 2014 it was nearly $40 a share.

      You were crazy to buy this stock 2 years ago. I quit using Pandora about 5 years ago or more because there were better options.
      If this article had instead been about Pandora going out of business I would not have been surprised at all.

  5. Can't use Pandora anymore by Kargan · · Score: 1

    I primarily listened to Pandora on a web-enabled Bluray player, up until they re-did their site. Now the built-in Pandora app won't connect.

    Oh well. Their loss, I have a ton of music to listen to that doesn't require Internet at all.

    --
    Palaces, barricades, threats, meet promises
    1. Re:Can't use Pandora anymore by skids · · Score: 1

      That's pretty funny... I stopped listening and didn't renew my payed subscription for the exact opposite reason... they were spending all their time developing apps for everything under the sun, and no time improving their supposed core product, which had stopped finding much new-to-me music I liked no matter how much feedback I put in or how many times I started fresh.

      --
      Someone had to do it.
  6. Losing money and trading at only $6.89 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Um Tesla investors, maybe you should pay attention. Because that's where TSLA should be trading if you people weren't so gaga over Musk and his bullshit.

    1. Re: Losing money and trading at only $6.89 by oic0 · · Score: 1

      The deal with Tesla is it COULD make money. They don't have any trouble selling cars, theyre just investing heavily in growth. To investors that looks like prime time to get in.

    2. Re: Losing money and trading at only $6.89 by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      No, Tesla loses money PRIOR to capital expenses. COGS and operations puts them at a net loss; R&D and capital expenses/facilities comes after that.

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  7. Tiny revenue. No profit by DogDude · · Score: 1

    Who in their right mind would buy this stock? You've got to be an idiot to invest in this company.

    --
    I don't respond to AC's.
  8. Morans pay for Radio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fuck you're plebs. Streaming plebs.

  9. Still waiting for Cortana Integration by nadass · · Score: 1

    I use Windows and I use the Harman-Kardon Invoke (the one with Cortana integration) the Pandora skill has been "Coming Soon" since last summer... I would be using it all the time if the skill was available already. PANDORA: Release the skills and suddenly your usage metrics will increase (or don't and hope that I actually renew my subscription despite using the service less and less every single day).

  10. I like Pandora by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

    For the types of music I listen to most - jazz, big band, swing - they’ve been great. Their predictive algorithm matches my tastes better than either Spotify or Apple Music.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re: I like Pandora by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like faggot and nigg3r music.

    2. Re:I like Pandora by AmazingRuss · · Score: 1

      Youtube red has a pretty good algorithm too. Unfortunately the don't have a hard line between official and uploaded stuff, so you get crappy audio sometimes.

    3. Re: I like Pandora by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      More like old bastard music. Don't ask him about that time he went to Shelbyville.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    4. Re: I like Pandora by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2

      More like old bastard music. Don't ask him about that time he went to Shelbyville.

      Thanks for asking!

      So there was this one time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Give me five bees for a quarter, you'd say.

      Now where were we? Oh yeah: the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    5. Re: I like Pandora by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      I hope, for the sake of your sanity and mine, that you copy-pasted that and didn't do it from memory.

      [aside] Not that he can even remember what he had for breakfast.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    6. Re: I like Pandora by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      Haha no, I don’t even remember seeing it. But I saw “Shelbyville” and figured it was a Simpsons reference. And, since it was about old people, I figured it had to be Grandpa. The rest was DuckDuckGo.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
  11. Spotify dropped radio... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... so I switched back to Pandora after not using it for 5+ years. Spotify had a much better radio than Pandora, the algorithm was very good at figuring out exactly what type of music I was hunting for.

  12. Pandora? WTF? by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    WTF is it, apart from an Italian sponge cake?

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  13. Re:Pandora? WTF? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's a chain of stores that sells jewellery to women.

  14. Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Who cares? I mean literally, other than stock salesmen, who cares?

    When I need to buy stock, I go down to the stock store and buy something they have in stock that fits my budget.

    I don't care if it's user-data powered, pump-and-dump powered, or fairy dust powered. A stock is a stock is a stock.

  15. Meh by thejynxed · · Score: 1

    I gave up on them after they never really played anything I liked, even in the genres I do like. My wife still listens to it when she's taking a shower or eating lunch at work. For my needs Spotify, Google Play Music, etc have all been a better option when on the go and at home I have a massive NAS-stored digital file (.FLAC of course) + cd + vinyl collection.

    Speaking of genres, that is another thing they need to spend more time fixing the accuracy of. Every now and then even my wife comments about how poorly some songs are classified when they show up for play in the app.

    --
    @Mindless Drivel: 100% of Twitter posts ever Tweeted.