Pandora (service)
Music streaming and recommendation website / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Pandora is a subscription-based music streaming service owned by Sirius XM Holdings based in Oakland, California, United States. The service carries a focus on recommendations based on the "Music Genome Project" — a means of classifying individual songs by musical traits. The service originally launched in the consumer market as an internet radio service, which would generate personalized channels based on these traits and songs liked by the user; this service is available in an advertising-supported tier, and a subscription-based version. In 2017, the service launched Pandora Premium, an on-demand version of the service more in line with contemporary competitors.
 | |
| Type of business | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
Type of site | Music streaming service |
| Available in | English |
| Founded | January 2000 (as Savage Beast Technologies) Oakland, California, U.S. |
| Headquarters | Oakland, California, U.S |
| No. of locations | 7 |
| Area served | United States |
| Founder(s) | Will Glaser Jon Kraft Tim Westergren |
| Key people | Roger J. Lynch (CEO)[1] Aimée Lapic (CMO) David Gerbitz (COO) Chris Phillips (CPO) |
| Services | Internet radio |
| Employees | 1,938 (2019)[2] |
| Parent | Sirius XM (2019–present) |
| Subsidiaries | Rdio (as of December 22nd, 2015) Next Big Sound Adswizz (as of May 29th, 2018) |
| URL | www |
| Advertising | Banner ads, video ads, audio ads |
| Registration | Optional (required to save stations) |
| Users | 55.9 million active (2021),[3] 6.4 million subscribers (2021)[4] |
| Current status | Active |
| Native client(s) on | Universal Windows App, iOS, Android |
| Written in | Java |
| [5] | |
The company was founded in 2000 as Savage Beast Technologies, and initially conceived as a business-to-business company licensing the Music Genome Project to retailers as a recommendation platform. In 2005, the company shifted its focus to the consumer market by launching Pandora as an internet radio product. Pandora is a freemium service; basic features are free with advertisements or limitations, while additional features, such as improved streaming quality, music downloads and offline channels are offered via paid subscriptions.
In February 2019, Sirius XM Holdings acquired Pandora for $3.5 billion in stock.[6][7] In 2021, Pandora had about 55.9 million active monthly users, and 6.4 million subscribers.[8] Pandora reportedly now has fewer than 50m active users. [9]