Pandora Files for IPO

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Online radio service Pandora has filed for IPO, hoping to raise an estimated $100 million dollars for expansion and acquisitions. Pandora claims half of all internet radio traffic with a base of 80 million registered users. 2011 is looking to be a big year for Internet/Technology IPO offerings.

The Internet radio service can be accessed via computer, smartphones such as the iPhone, Androids and BlackBerrys and other electronic devices.
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Pandora is really good. I listen to a lot of really obscure stuff and it surprises me with recommendations I have and have not heard of.

I'm not much of an investor by any means.... lol, but I am curious as to how well cloud companies can be valued. Is Facebook really worth as much as it was.... like 50 billion and it only pulled 1 or 2 billion in last year? That's pretty sketchy considering how young of a company it is and that it's customer base could easily be swayed to a newer alternative "cooler" option.

Is there revenue through ads? I use this thing called "ad block" that's about as heard to install as winamp.
 
I'm pretty sure this will be the end of the Pandora that we all know and love. :(
 
Sometimes when I forget my ipod (or it dies) I plug my phone into the car stereo and listen to Pandora rather then FM or CD. Excellent service...I would maybe even consider paying for it if was really cheap (like $3-5 a month, but let me skip indefinently).
 
tikicult said:
I'm pretty sure this will be the end of the Pandora that we all know and love. :(
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The Pandora I loved is already dead. 40hr/mo cap is pretty ridiculously low for someone that wants to use it daily.

I'm just waiting for Spotify to enter the US market..
 
kencheeto said:
The Pandora I loved is already dead. 40hr/mo cap is pretty ridiculously low for someone that wants to use it daily.

I'm just waiting for Spotify to enter the US market..
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Someone has to pay for it. They were not making enough to cover service for free use.
 
The $3/mth sub is so low it's hard to not justify paying for Pandora. I have 2 subs (my wife and I separately) as we both feel the money we pay is completely worth what we get in return. The amount of time I spend getting music through other methods is nothing now that I have Pandora.
 
westrock2000 said:
Sometimes when I forget my ipod (or it dies) I plug my phone into the car stereo and listen to Pandora rather then FM or CD. Excellent service...I would maybe even consider paying for it if was really cheap (like $3-5 a month, but let me skip indefinently).
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TY for this. Had been thinking about actually subscribing, as I listen somewhat frequently over the last few months. I guess my biggest bones about Pandora so far have been, inability to skip, and lack of accuracy in music choices when you create a station. (You can create a station, one day you'll love what they're 'picking' for you -and it's in sync with your station's theme, the next time you listen to that station, the picks have nothing to do with the station.) :rolleyes: -this includes both using seeds, and also thumbs ups.

kencheeto said:
True, but I'd rather pay for something like Rdio where I can choose my playlists and offline sync on my mobile.
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Anything further folks that pay for this can provide on this would be appreciated! Hadn't heard of it before now.

My biggest gripe with paid streaming radio stations (which I still haven't found a winner yet) is that you can't fine tune what's played to any great degree. IOW: their "program directors" suck (in radio speak). I've gotten better music grouping using shoutcast's station list. IMO, that's a sad reflection on paid sites' performance/implementation.

If I create a station called "blues" (which yes, I know, is a wide target) I don't expect to hear Jamiroquai on it. Or if "funk," I don't expect to hear disco on it. *sigh*
(I'm looking at you Pandora)
 
Sprkslfly said:
Anything further folks that pay for this can provide on this would be appreciated! Hadn't heard of it before now.
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Rdio's my favorite, but I've also tried Grooveshark and MOG. Rhapsody also has a much larger content base than these three (with the possible exception of Grooveshark) but their software just isn't up to par. I'd rank MOG second then Grooveshark.

If you have your own music collection at home and want to be able to stream that as well, I really suggest getting Audiogalaxy installed. Using it on your phone over 3G will kill your bandwidth but over wireless I love having my entire collection available for streaming.

Keep an eye out for Spotify though. Unless the licensing negotiations they're going through cripple the availability/functionality of the US service, going by the existing UK and European services it'll be a very strong contender.
 
Jeremy C said:
The $3/mth sub is so low it's hard to not justify paying for Pandora. I have 2 subs (my wife and I separately) as we both feel the money we pay is completely worth what we get in return. The amount of time I spend getting music through other methods is nothing now that I have Pandora.
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Wow, I didn't know they already had a subscription.

2) Pay $36 to upgrade to Pandora One for one full year. Pandora One, our paid subscription service, has unlimited listening hours every month, no advertising, no daily skip limit, higher audio quality streams, and several other benefits.
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i bought a sub last year around may or june, and have used and abused the hell out of it. ill be resubbing when this runs out.
 
I bought the $36/year sub to Pandora and its great for discovering new music and automatically generating lists you don't need any upkeep with.

However, the limited amount of song skips, even on the paid-for version, really ticks me off sometimes. The inability to load a specific song you want to hear also sucks.. you pretty much have to be in "discovery" mood when using Pandora, all the time, instead of wanting anything specific.

Grooveshark is the compliment to Pandora that I use, where I can load any specific songs I want, in any order, skip whatever, and never even create an account.

For the above reasons and for the much better user experience of their Grooveshark competition, I would not invest in their IPO. Though I love my sub, and will re-sub when it runs out, I still see it as too nich and inferior in user experience to other services. The controls on the paid-for version that runs as an Adobe Air app on your desktop are as misplaced as anything Microsoft could have done with their "Golden Office Orbs" in Office '07 and leave you wanting for a more professional-feeling, intuitive, product.

Facebook however is coming out with an IPO soon enough. That might be worth going in and selling in 3 days, then coming back in 1 month. Scottrade ftw.
 
I just paid for the Pandora one as a gift for my sister

The Red - dump scottstrade and switch to thinkorswim, they'll match your fees and send you a free monkey to boot :)
 
Personally, I find it curious how fast they were able to turn their business around from near bankruptcy. Wasn't it only about a year ago when they were complaining about how the new licensing fees were going to put them under? Don't get me wrong, I like Pandora, but to go from shutting down to IPO in a year, seems a bit unusual. Business must be really booming.
 
You guys think this is a good thing?

Once they go public, users/customers no longer matter. Only shareholders matter. Just look back through history what has happened to likable services that have gone public.
 
Hell, I remember back in oh what was it... 2004? When the only way to even listen to Pandora was to pay for it. It was worth it then and it's still worth it now.
 
TechLarry said:
You guys think this is a good thing?

Once they go public, users/customers no longer matter. Only shareholders matter. Just look back through history what has happened to likable services that have gone public.
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And think of all the publicly traded companies that are just fine.
 
I've been paying for a subscription for a couple years now. I've been introduced to a lot of new music that I would have never known about without Pandora. I enjoyed the service enough that I felt it was worth paying for. I've encouraged my friends to do the same if they think it is worth supporting.
 
vraa said:
I just paid for the Pandora one as a gift for my sister

The Red - dump scottstrade and switch to thinkorswim, they'll match your fees and send you a free monkey to boot :)
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FWIW thinkorswim charges higher fees.
 
Anyone read the article? Still massively in debt and burning cash. This IPO is just another way to pull in operating funds until they can find a way to monetize listeners better. (Royalties now are just as big of a cost as bandwidth if not more.)

I work for an internet radio company and our customers (terrestrial stations) pay more in royalties than they pay us for bandwidth/features :(
 
The Red said:
However, the limited amount of song skips, even on the paid-for version, really ticks me off sometimes..
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2) Pay $36 to upgrade to Pandora One for one full year. Pandora One, our paid subscription service, has unlimited listening hours every month, no advertising, no daily skip limit, higher audio quality streams, and several other benefits.
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tried skipping a lot of songs recently? I haven't but I will soon to test it
 
I just tested it. 6 skips per hour allowed on pandora one. I wouldn't call that "daily unlimited"
 
robble said:
I just tested it. 6 skips per hour allowed on pandora one. I wouldn't call that "daily unlimited"
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Could have saved you the trouble. The words "daily unlimited" make no sense. Think about it, whats the diff between daily unlimited and simply unlimited?

6 skips per hour or you make a new station.. and when it sucks is when you're on a station you've been cultivating for years and you add 1 song to the type they are suppose to match, to give yourself variety, but it ends up throwing garbage in-between your nice lists.

A single list could take several days of fixing.


PS: I go with Scottrade b/c they have smaller fees than TD Ameritrade's thinkorswim.com
 
handruin said:
Is it worth 3x the cost over Pandora for an account? I couldn't find a list of feature/benefits when paying for a Grooveshark account.
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Free Grooveshark vs. radio (they have one as well), I haven't subscribed to any of these.
 
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