Pandora Mapping Its Place in the US Streaming Market

The 20,000 Foot View:  Pandora is the granddaddy of streaming music, clocking            million active users before Spotify had even gone into public beta. It remains the most widely used audio streaming service in the US, but is no longer the golden child of the space. Despite having been long positioned as the long-term future of radio, investors have become increasingly concerned about its ability to compete against Spotify, Amazon and Apple—streaming services that originally had their eyes on replacing retail rather than radio. With all eyes on Spotify and Apple duking it out for leadership of the US subscriber base, Pandora is out of the spotlight, despite improvements on some key metrics.

Key Findings

• In            2018            registered revenues of            million against            quarterly net loss of            million
• Pandora’s            million            of programmatic audio platform AdsWizz            it as a major force            programmatic audio ads
• Users are            the June 2018 MAU count                       million was just            higher than            June 2013 count of            million
• Engagement is            average hours of usage per            were            in            2018, up            year-on-year            and bettered only by a            high of            in            2016 
• Ad revenue            MAU was            in            2018, up            but ad revenue was down            to            million 
• Advertiser hours            a share of total listener            was            in            2018, down from            year earlier
• Subscribers grew            to reach            million in            2018,            the paid conversion rate rising                       in                       to            in            2018
• As of            subscribers represented just            of Pandora’s            but            of its revenue
• Pandora had            the US subscriber market in           
• Pandora is            largest audio streaming service in            US with            in            2018, up                       in            2018 but one point            its            2016 level
• Pandora co-exists            other streaming services:            of Apple            subscribers also use Pandora
• Pandora has            second most female skewed user            of streaming services in the                       of its users are female

Companies and brands mentioned in this report: AdsWizz, Amazon, Amazon Prime Music, Amazon Music Unlimited, Apple, Apple Music, AT&T, Deezer, iHeart Media Instagram, Liberty Media, Napster, Pandora, Pandora Plus, Pandora Premium, SiriusXM, Snapchat, Soundcloud, Spotify, Tidal, T-Mobile, TuneIn Radio, Vevo, YouTube