A funny thing happened on the way back from the Pandora forum...

OK, first of all, forgive me that it’s taken me all week to write this. It’s been one of those weeks. Anyway, Monday night, I attended a discussion in NYC hosted by Tim Westergren, Chief Strategy Officer & Founder of Pandora. Tim provided some interesting background about the evolution of Pandora over the past several years, along with some hints as to the direction it’s headed (If you want to read up on his travels meeting and talking with music fans, he’s documented it here). Tim touched on two things that really resonated with me personally – first, one of the problems with the music industry is its failure to introduce consumers to a wide range of musical artists. In the current model, major labels can be conceptualized as venture capitalists who pour money into a handful of artists with the potential to sell big. The model is sound; however, the downside is that the average consumer will only ever hear the music of the most popular artists and will miss out on exposure to indie or other, less heavily marketed musicians. Second, he discussed the fact that, as we get older, it becomes even more difficult to discover new music because other responsibilities preclude us from spending time in clubs or taking other steps to learn about new artists. Pandora aims to serve as a mechanism to bridge these gaps. In terms of the future directions of Pandora, these were some of the highlights: 1) Expect an increase in advertising on the site. Tim reported that their research shows that users return to the main screen an average of 7 times per hour, offering advertisers ample opportunity to get noticed (Also, FYI, when asked about the demographics of Pandora users, Tim indicated that the majority were young men, around 18-30, which represent a hard-to-reach segment and could be important for potential advertisers). There was also a lot of discussion about offering low-cost advertising opportunities for indie bands to promote upcoming performances/releases and Tim indicated he’d love to find a way to make that happen, though it didn’t sound like there were any immediate plans. (Just one other side note about “indie” vs. “major label” distinctions – Tim reiterated Pandora’s stance against promoting one type of music over another, and they are committed to avoid making distinctions between indie vs. major label, popular vs. less popular. He wants it to be about pure music discovery, no labels attached.) 2) Probably in response to reviews that Pandora is relatively less developed with respect to its “community” features (for example, see the review at Extreme Tech), Tim hinted at plans to increase users’ ability to customize and share their favorite music. Tim was clear to make the point that he didn’t want Pandora turning into an online dating site and wanted to maintain its focus on the music and keep in mind its target audience, but did tell us to keep our eyes out for changes to the “Favorites” page in the coming weeks. 3) One of the coolest features that was discussed was the provision of more detailed information about artists whose songs are played, including bios and concert/show ticket information. Tim mentioned the possibility of trying to provide details even down to the local level (e.g. “Band x is playing at this club in your city tomorrow night”) which, if introduced, could present a huge promotional opportunity. With regard to album sales and downloads, there are already links to iTunes and Amazon to purchase tracks; however, unfortunately, it appears there are still no plans to link to other sites (e.g. CDBaby or emusic) for indie artists whose music is not available at major online retailers. Finally, I just want to relay a funny anecdote…that night, after the meeting, I was walking home and was approached by a guy on 6th Avenue pushing me to buy his CD. I don’t know why I stopped (I never stop) – what can I say…all that talk about discovering new music had me primed. Anyway, he proceeded to make his pitch, and I told him I wouldn’t give him my money but I would give him a tip – send his CD in to Pandora and get his music heard by a lot more people than he could approach in the Village. Better yet, if he hurried, he could probably still catch Tim at the Screening Room in Tribeca. Anyway, he looked at me like I had a screw loose (what can I say, I’m a maven, not a salesman). And he handed me his flyer and I walked on. His name was “Preacherman” – now, I don’t know whether I would have liked Preacherman’s music (his selling point to me was that “nobody dies on the record”, so I guess that’s a plus), but the great thing about Pandora is that it gives artists like Preacherman the chance to get heard. And if I don’t like his music? That’s ok – I can just give him the thumbs down and see who’s up next. Technorati Tags: musicrecommendation,musicdiscovery,pandora,indie,marketing,advertising