With a constant stream of mobile apps and new music sharing platforms nipping at their heels, the team at Pandora -- an internet radio and music recommendation site -- remains focused on providing value to their users and advertisers alike. The release of their mobile app in 2011 saw tremendous user growth and they're working to expand access to their site and mobile app across new devices and platforms. HuffPost Tech's Bianca Bosker caught up with Heidi Browning, Pandora's Senor Vice President of Strategic Solutions, and Michelle Alexander, a music analyst at Pandora, to talk about industry trends and what's next for the growing company.
“We’ve been working on making sure we’re as ubiquitous as radio. We’re embedded in over 400 consumer electronics devices," Browning said. “We’ve been working with all the major auto manufacturers to include Pandora in a safe and simple way ... Some are all voice control, some are incorporated into the head unit, others have thumbs on the steering wheel.”
Browning also touched on their advertising strategy, emphasizing the minimally invasive role ads within the Pandora online and mobile experience. Browning notes that in conventional radio, advertising blocks last approximately six to seven minutes. "All audio happen about once every 20 minutes, you only hear one and it’s between 15 and 20 seconds," she said. Visual advertising, in the form of banner ads and rich media units, only appear when the user is active on the site, a tactic that serves both the user and the advertiser.
"Visual ads are only displayed upon engagement with the site," she said. "When you go to change a station or create a new station, we take that moment to give you an ad. For advertisers, that’s really important because they want to know that somebody is seeing their ad.”