Customers listening to music is the key mission for Pandora Media. Customer engagement is the company’s top priority and ongoing goal.
And customers have responded in a resounding fashion.
“Our listeners continue to be increasingly engaged as listening hours per active user grew to 22.2 hours this quarter,” Pandora Media CEO Brian McAndrews said during the company’s second-quarter earnings conference call on July 23, according to Seeking Alpha. “Total listener hours were 5.3 billion for the quarter, a 5% increase from this time last year. This is traditionally a seasonally lower point and people are on vacation and away from work and also spending more time in their cars where, while we are a leader in streaming radio, we’re still in the early days of developing our market share.”
McAndrews attributed the rise in customer engagement levels, in part, to significant improvements to the company’s new user interface which launched in February in “our never-ending quest to always play the perfect song to each person at the right time.”
Pandora’s share of all U.S. radio listening was 9.47% as of June 30, up from 8.9% at the same time last year.
As measured by comScore, Pandora’s total multiplatform unique visitors in June grew 4% year-over-year to 84.9 million.
In terms of engagement, the comScore June Mobile Metrix report ranked Pandora as the No. 2 mobile service in the U.S. in terms of average minutes per user.
“This is significant,” McAndrews noted. “Only Facebook, whose metrics now included Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp properties, was higher.”
Pandora's engagement metrics were more than double the next closest mobile service and 138% higher than the next largest mobile music service.
“Our leadership position in the advertising industry extends beyond the strength of our monetization of mobile,” McAndrews explained. “We also continue to lead by bringing brands unique ways to connect with their audiences through music. With our Pandora country event at the CMA Festival, we connected brands such as Kingsford, Velveeta, Folgers, and Bud Light with over 900 passionate country music fans of Dustin Lync, Thompson Square, and new country Superstar Kelsea Ballerini.”
What’s more, Pandora Media created an innovative partnership with Ford F-Series trucks to bring a new kind of experience to country listeners via a custom content station.
“In addition to helping marketers evolve their brand strategies and connect to customers through music, we're rapidly becoming an indispensable partner to Music Makers by helping artist evolve their promotional tactics to better connect to their audiences and grow their revenue,” McAndrews added.