MUMBAI: Internet radio company Pandora is intensifying its effort to lure mobile advertising dollars by adding more functionality in its mobile apps. The internet company has unveiled some music related apps for the Apple and android smartphones. The company will also release a version for Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 by early next year.
The featured app will showcase lyrics and artists information further making it easier to share self-crafted stations with friends. The mobile streaming of the company is pacing as in the quarter that ended in July, mobile listening nearly doubled from a year earlier and made up more than 75 percent of its 3.3 billion listener hours.
Pandora’s mobile ad revenue has also registered growth like its mobile listening, and the mobile revenue has grown from mobile ads sums upto 86 percent at $59 million in the last quarter, making up over half of the company’s total revenues. The company, which is based in Oakland, California, is expected to report its third-quarter results in late November.
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Speaking about the new functionality Pandora’s chief technology officer and executive vice president of product Tom Conrad said, “The revamp was not purposefully designed to boost mobile ad revenue although the update will see some advertising partners get more involved. Our motivation for doing this was to connect people with the music they’re discovering in a fundamental way.”
Pandora is the free online radio wherein listeners can pick genres or styles of music but not specific songs or albums. It has 175 million registered users, including 58 million who use it in a given month. It claims a 73 percent share of the market for free online radio. The company competes with services such as Clear Channel’s iHeart Radio and has apps on phones, tablets, computers and car stereo systems. The free online radio relies mostly on advertising revenue to make its business work.
