Report: Five Slides Pandora Doesn't Want You to See

RADIO ONLINE | Monday, March 28, 2016

Pierre Bouvard

In his latest blog post, Cumulus and Westwood One CMO Pierre Bouvard (pictured) ponders if Pandora will be to streaming what MySpace was to social media? Following the news that founder Tim Westergren is taking over as CEO, Bouvard makes list of priorities for Pandora's new CEO and it starts with fixing the music service's huge problem with 18- to 24-year-olds.

Five findings from Edison Research's "Share of Ear" study explain why trouble is brewing for Pandora among 18-24s:

1. Among 18-24s, time spent with on-demand services is surging at the expense of owned music. From fall 2014 to fall 2015, the share of total audio time spent with Americans' owned music has dropped from 24% to 20.5%. Meanwhile, the share of time spent with on-demand services Spotify and YouTube has jumped from 16.3% to 23.7%.
2. Pandora has a huge 18-24 problem and it's called YouTube and Spotify. YouTube and Spotify are now nearly 2.5 times as big as Pandora. Over the last year, share of 18-24 time spent listening to YouTube and Spotify has surged 45%. Meanwhile Pandora's 18-24 shares are up only a bit.
3. Spotify's 18-24 time spent listening is going through the roof and will soon overtake Pandora. In one year, Spotify's 18-24 share of listening has grown 134%, from a 3.5% share to an 8.2% share. For all of 2015, Pandora hovered around a 9% share.
4. Spotify's reach is growing; Pandora's reach growth has stalled. Among all people 13 and over, the number of total uniques, or different people Pandora reaches, has flatlined. Spotify's total reach is up 23% since fall 2014.
5. Spotify's audience has more passion compared to Pandora's. Spotify does a much better job converting reach into audience share of time spent listening. Among 18-24s, or every 1% of reach, Spotify generates a .45 share. Pandora is only able to convert 1% of reach into a .37 share.