Pandora CEO claims 'no impact' from Apple Music
Happy days are here again for Pandora. The pioneering streaming music company was able to beat revenue expectations in the most recent quarter, thanks to a more than 30 percent increase in advertising compared to the same period last year.
Wall Street was pleased with the results as well as Pandora stock is up more than 17 percent in trading today.
But what about Apple Music? According to Business Insider, Pandora CEO Brian McAndrews is far from worried, saying he doesn’t expect it to hurt Pandora in the near-term or the future:
“In terms of Apple Music, of course it launched at the end of June, so there was no impact yet,” he said. “Going forward, we feel really good about our trajectory and competitive position. With any big launch like this and the noise in the marketplace, there could be some users that experiment with it and there could be some short term impact… But we don’t believe that there will be any long-term impact.”
Even though it could simply be competitive bluster, I think McAndrews is correct. Unlike Rdio or Spotify, Pandora truly offers a different experience than Apple Music.
Its simple, radio station-like approach to online music is something that pretty much anyone can understand. I have a number of friends and family members who could care less about the benefits of a true streaming service, but who swear by Pandora – even with the free version’s limited skips and advertising.
And Pandora’s long-term health will mostly depend on advertising sales, not subscriptions, anyway.
As far as Apple Music, it needs to get better soon. Influential blogger Jim Dalrymple, earlier this week, skewered the service after he lost around 4,700 tracks from his personal music library.
The real test will be when the free, three-month trial period ends and users will have to decide whether they truly want to pay to use Apple Music.
For other news today, see: Frontback says farewell and plans a mid-August shutdown, Flickr brings back Pro badge and more with new paid plan, and Who needs words? Send memes and sounds with What2Share.
