Pandora

Internet radio giant Pandora has now announced plans to further its fingerprint in streaming, with a new own on-demand music streaming service much like Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal.

The Wall Street Journal has announced that it will in fact be a tiered service, much like all other services, with free and premium services available. The new Pandora One is a $5 a month version of the app, which offers an ad free version of the classic Pandora radio, and possibly some new features too. The on-demand capabilities will be available for $10 per month, a completely new service which allows users to play whatever they want, whenever they want.

This on-demand service is a huge change in their current operations. At the moment, Pandora has not needed permission from record labels or copyright owners because it runs as a radio station rather than as an on-demand application. “We’ve been working hard to bring an expanded listening experience to listeners and are on track to do so later this year,” a Pandora spokesperson told Forbes Magazine.

With Pandora losing around 80 million listeners in the past year, could this be the change that they so desperately need? Personally, I don’t think so. People are turning to these major streaming sites not only because of their catalogues or prices, but because of their brand, culture, exclusives and artist partnerships. Kanye West and Tidal, Drake and Apple Music, those partnerships work. Not to mention all the other incentives those companies have, the exclusives, curated music playlists, high definition streaming, the incredible Beats 1 Radio.

Can Pandora really offer something so new and enticing to the streaming market that users will leave Apple, Spotify and Tidal?

Only time will tell.

Image: tecnoinnovador

Speaking recently at a conference, the Chief Financial Officer of music streaming/recommendation service Pandora, Mike Herring, had some pretty harsh words for iTunes and the late Steve Jobs. The conference, which took place in California, addressed Pandora investors while discussing the future of the company, particularly in regards to on-demand streaming and the recent acquisition of Rdio. According to Herring, Pandora’s main objective is to breathe life back into a flailing music industry – one which he says, Steve Jobs destroyed.

“Pandora’s basic philosophy is how do we bring the music industry back. It’s had a tough 15 years… Steve Jobs eviscerated the music industry with the launch if iTunes and it’s been downhill ever since.”

Usually, such fighting words out of the Pandora camp are reserved for Spotify. In an article written for Business Insider earlier this month, the CEO of Pandora, Brain McAndrews said that the free, on-demand streaming model “drives down music’s intrinsic value by creating a “grey market.”” and concluded that it is, among other things utterly unsustainable.

Speaking on the royalty rates that Pandora pays artists and labels, Herring said that “What we want is a fair and reasonable rate. We think actually that copyright holders, artists, deserve to be compensated for us playing their music. We don’t dispute that at all and we want it to be a fair and a rational dollar amount.”

Not one to leave a stone un-turned when it comes to competitors, Herring shifted his aim slightly, moving on from iTunes to the newer Apple Music, when he claimed that “no one subscribes” to the service – or at least, the don’t do it willingly. “I guess a few million people do, but the reality is you want to get people to choose to do that is a much bigger trick. You have to have a great product.” No doubt, he was referring to the fact that while the Apple Music app exists within iPhones, many consumers favour other services and apps for listening to music.

Adding to his comments on iTunes’ destruction of the music industry, Herring said that with the failure of the download which was “supposed to save it”, it is now up to “on-demand streaming,” to do so. “We will see if that happens. I think what really needs to happen is we need to think broadly how do we drive engagement overall as a music industry and that message is starting to make sense.”