Although rival personalized radio provider Last.fm Ltd. has been decking out its site with social networking features for years, Pandora Media Inc. has largely stuck to its core strength of delivering well-selected songs to listeners through an editorially driven model. That's why Pandora's
addition of
concert listings via a partnership with Bay Area-based
SonicLiving Inc. seems like a significant step forward for the company, which has previously only dabbled in social features.
It's also a massive boost for SonicLiving, which sports tens of thousands of users but will now get access to Pandora's base of 19 million users. SonicLiving founder Gabe Benveniste says his company is still looking to raise a first round of funding, whether from institutional investors or angels, in the coming months. The site has benefited from an audience of tech-savvy early adopters in the Bay Area, but it is also gaining a growing presence in other cities.
Nine-year-old Pandora has raised more than $20 million from several Bay Area investors, including WaldenVC, Labrador Ventures, Selby Venture Partners and
Crosslink Capital, as well as from Topspin Media Inc. co-founder Peter
Gotcher. Pandora
laid off about 20 staffers last month, although it says sales continue to grow. Pandora also
survived a brush with extinction when Congress passed a key Webcasting royalty bill this fall.
Last.fm has branched out more aggressively into social networking, with profile pages, show listings and other community features. The London startup, which generates music recommendations by drawing on its users' listening habits rather than an editor's picks , was acquired by CBS Inc. for $280 million in 2007.
I'm still waiting to hear back from Pandora about their plans to include more social networking features, so watch this space for updates.
[UPDATE: According to Pandora, this is among several planned innovations involving social networking applications. They'd experimented with concert listings in the past but dropped them. This time around, they've engaged Citibank as an initial sponsor, giving the company an instant revenue stream in exchange as it adds SonicLiving's listings. Furthermore, the new arrangement "doesn't close the door on relationships with other show-listing services in the future."]
-- Paul BonanosSee
Sept. 30 and
Oct. 17 posts about Pandora Media Inc. from Tech Confidentnial
Continue reading below
