My love of Pandora is no secret, nor is its overall popularity. But in addition to my simple addiction to the constant stream of new (and quality!) music that it delivers to my waiting and eager ears, I’m continually struck by how intelligent of a company it really seems to be. To reiterate, I am simply a user, I do not have a history in business, marketing, the music biz, etc… However, as a user and consumer of many, many music sites, (which I will be adding reviews and opinions on) Pandora continues to stick out as a powerful player in the field both because of its ability to deliver music as well as its ability to appease those to whom the bills are owed!
With this in mind I noted that I have recently been getting short ads mixed between songs, occuring every 5-6 songs. Maybe this isn’t a new trend however I have only begun to hear them on my stations. Along with the ad comes a note drawing attention to an option to become a subscriber at an annual rate of $36 for an ad-free experience across all platforms (i.e. computer, blackberry, iphone, etc).
Subscriptions for music services have not worked out very well across the board. Although they are on the surface very appealing, they are simply not that popular. This seems to be usually due to restrictions on how many songs can be downloaded or listened to, this, as well as other factors such as selection seem to have serioulsy hindered this method of revenue raising for online music sites. However, I think that it could really work for Pandora.
As a user I have to say that I really do not mind Pandora’s current ad situation at all. By only serving up one ad at a time (granted it is very large!) their ads do not create the usual cacophony of visual elements often created by sites supported by advertising. However, I will say that there are times when the ads are very distracting and even annoying, but I suppose that that can be somewhat forgiven as it is the point of an ad to draw attention to it… Not having any experience in marketing it seems to me that such an ad sitution would also be advantageous to an advertiser as their ad is the only one on the page and is connected to the user’s actions on the site, making it more likely that a consumer will notice the ad and at least glance it over. So, if Pandora’s current situation isn’t so bad why add subscriptions to it?
Clearly, the answer here lies in the enormous cost of running a music site/radio. Royalty fees for web radio are astronomically higher than other royalty fees for traditional radio and even satellite. (which does not make any logical sense to me apart from the fact that its “new”…) This would explain this introduction of a subscription service to get an ad-free Pandora account. Although the ads on the site are not too intrusive a completely seamless musical experience would certainly be welcome!
The reasons that I think that this situation might work itself out quite well for Pandora lies in the nearly cultish devotion of Pandora’s many, many followers and the amount of music that comes with said subscription. The first of these points needs little exposition, Pandora is without a doubt one of the most popular ways to get music! This popularity and the allegiance that seems to come with it (here I admit I have little evidence apart from word of mouth, but I have heard a lot of it!) seems to indicate that should Pandora need to move towards more subscriptions, if ads no longer pay the bills, I do not think that many Pandora users will balk at subscribing for their music fix. My second point is simply that as compared to other subscription services Pandora would provide its endless stream of music for the subscription as opposed to the often restricted situations that occur at most other subscription sites. No, you cannot pick specific songs on Pandora, but after one’s initial experience with the service such is not often a problem. And yes, one can receive all that music while paying some annual amount, and yet, the listening to it without ads already provides a strong incentive to at least consider the service, at least in the eyes of this rather frugal consumer of online music!
Subscription services may not be the foundational breaking of ground that Pandora has done in the past but it is a place where I see Pandora succeeding where so many others have failed. These points alongside their outright honesty and already superb services indicates a possibility of me for Pandora to succeed where many others have failed. Having already rewritten the book for online radio stations I see Pandora continuing to lead the pack.
Responses and input welcome!
