Absolutely Fantastic News for Pandora
Typically, Pandora (P) doesn't generate that much traffic. However, I write about the company consistently because I, by and large, believe in what it's doing. Plus, I'm an old radio guy. The space, as disrupted and transformed by Pandora, fascinates me now more than ever.
I figured I would write an inverse title to see if "positivity" "sells" as well as "negativity."
Plus, earlier this week I promised to speak in a bit more detail -- without boring you to death -- on the burning issue of royalty payments to artists.
I do that in this article's companion piece: Spotify Has the Bad Business Model, Not Pandora.
But, before you go there, dig this fantastic news for Pandora.
According to comScore, no company is more mobile-centric than Pandora.
In September, among the 18-and-over U.S. population of iOS, Android and BlackBerry mobile users, Pandora received 48,641,000 mobile visits, more than double the 22,657,000 desktop visits it accepted. Twitter had the second largest mobile share, relative to its total digital (desktop and mobile) visits. To be clear, this is not about raw numbers; it's about the proportion of mobile that makes up a platform's entire digital audience.
Why is this fantastic news for Pandora? Reasonable question, particularly because people (e.g., Richard Greenfield at BTIG Media) will try to spin it as a negative.
You'll certainly hear the tired line -- Great! Pandora has all of these mobile users. Now let's see the company monetize them.