Pandora Media topped 40 million total registered users in early December — a number roughly equivalent to the combined population of the 30 largest U.S. cities. On track to hit a new milestone later this month — achieving 600,000 new registered users a week, 300,000 of whom are mobile — Pandora has added a total of 20 million registered users across all platforms (home, PC and mobile devices) in 2009.
As the nation’s #1 provider of personalized Internet radio today, Pandora garnered 44% of all Internet radio listening hours in October, according to Ando Domestic Ranker* and Pandora’s internal metrics. Total average daily users currently exceed 3 million, with mobile users comprising one-third of the total. Recent comScore data also show that Pandora’s delivery of coveted ad targets beat out both Hulu and ESPN with nearly twice as many daily visits among 18-24 year-olds. Among 25-34 year-olds, visitors come back to Pandora more than twice as often as repeat visitors to CNN.
“While Pandora is getting bigger, it’s also getting better — enabling brands such as Brita and our Filter For Good campaign not only to reach consumers, but to finely target our messaging to specific age groups, gender, geography and more — all wrapped in a premier user experience that’s truly engaging,” said Drew McGowan, senior group manager for Brita, The Clorox Company.
Pandora’s Mobile Momentum Driving Unprecedented Growth
Pandora has increased its iPhone user base by 400% in 2009, growing from two million registered iPhone users in December 2008, to more than 10 million in early December 2009.
This holiday season key advertisers, including Starbucks, have taken advantage of this momentum, pulling back from television advertising and instead focusing exclusively on online and mobile marketing. In keeping with its brand promise, Starbucks wanted to create an irresistible and uplifting experience, driving consumers in-store to participate in a charity drive. Donations of $1 from each sale of the “Playing for Change” CD went to the Global Fund to help fight AIDS in Africa. To drive this campaign Starbucks created a branded playlist on Pandora that, with one click, could be added to the consumer’s personal tuner online and on smart phones.
Pervasive in the mobile market, Pandora serves 21 Sprint phones, including the Palm Pre; 17 AT&T phones, the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch; five Windows Mobile phones; 23 Blackberry models; and 10 Android handsets. Smart phone users represent an incremental audience that is not necessarily reached online. The number of mobile users who report they use Pandora only on a mobile device has increased by 350% year over year.
*Ando Domestic Ranker, October 2009
