Pandora is one of the internet’s most successful radio service. It has over 250 million registered users and around 80 million active listeners. Will Glaser and Tim Westergren started the radio service in 2005, providing users a brand new way to stream music. The station allows users to select music based on the artists they like and using an algorithm it also creates a station that plays music related to the artist or genre (Lauden & Traver, 2016, p. 97). Pandora uses a Freemium business model to generate revenue and attract more users. The model provides users access to free basic features and they also have an option to pay $36 a year to access premium features. Pandora is in direct competition with Spotify, Tidal, and music industry giant, Apple Music. The case uses Pandora as an example as it did a great job adapting to the changes in the music industry. The company effectively changed its business model as time changed to retain its users and stay in business (Lauden & Traver, 2016, p. 98). Our analysis studies the systematic and cost-effective changes Pandora made to its business strategy to gain success. It also discusses the value proposition the company has to offer; as well as compares the success and failure of companies (MailChimp and Ning) which adopted the same freemium business model (Lauden & Traver, 2016, p. 100). To conclude, the analysis explores the main factors businesses need to take into consideration before they decide to use a freemium model.
Even so, when the artist put their time and hard work into making songs that will catch the subscribers attention just for it be free. For instance, Jacob Carter of “The Changing Landscape of the Music Business” quotes “In November of 2014, award-winning musician Taylor Swift pulled her entire music catalog from Spotify, a popular streaming app, claiming that their business model suggests that music does not hold much worth.” This shows that Taylor Swift does not believe with the fact that her music is just out there for free and she not receiving money just for it be out there for the public. Thus, Darrius Johnson of “Selling Out Not Worth the Risk” quotes “In many situations, a record label owns the rights to an artist’s music, and if they license a song to a company or other party the artist has no control over how the song can be used.” To clarify, this information artists would not have their own opinion of doing any commercial because their music doesn’t belong to them but the record labels. This proves, that some artist has their opinion about their music they make and they just want to be free for the world to have because they took their time to create
In the short story by John Cheever called "The Enormous Radio" it begins with Jim and Irene Westcotts appearing like the perfect American family. Cheever describes them as "the kind of people who seem to strike that satisfactory average of income, endeavor, and respectability" (Cheever 1). What is ironic about this story is the Westcotts are far from being the perfect family and the community they try to conform to is just as imperfect as the Westcotts themselves. A way the Westcotts try to live up to their society is by keeping secret the fact that they listen to the radio and attend musical events. This is because these activities were not something members of their community did. For example, Cheever says the "Westcotts differed
The movie “Radio” is the tale of a young African-American man who suffers from severe mental retardness and his journey to fame from football in the small South Carolinian town of Anderson. James “Radio” Kennedy is befriended by the T. L. Hanna High School head football coach, Coach Jones, and begins to help as an “assistant coach” of some sort. Eventually, James begins to attend Hanna High as an eleventh grade student due to the persistent efforts of Coach Jones.
Pandora originally started with a subcription type of business model wherein users must pay $36 per month after they have used up their 10 hours of free access. The original model used was the free trial type. What happened was after the free trial of 10 hours was used up, the customers were unwilling to pay for the subscription fee. Now, the new and current model being used by Pandora is the freemium business model. The new model offered users longer time limit in using their features, which could be used again in the next month and
This case study about the Spotify business model allows a broader vision of what the digital music industry is. In a short time, many companies have developed and managed marked their territory in a highly competitive industry. The start-up Spotify has undergone a remarkable evolution in a financial point of view but also in terms of its popularity. Its various competitive benefits regarding the market leader and its respect for music labels have enabled the company to be renowned and to have a reputation in the real business. Today, five years after its creation, Spotify is certainly criticized in some aspects of
John Cheever’s "The Enormous Radio" represents the enormous amount of hidden truths in American society of the 1940s. The problems with society during this time were hidden behind a facade of goodness; however, this false innocence becomes visible through the radio owned by the Westcotts. The radio causes the Westcotts to evolve from an innocent, naive pair who believe that everything they see is real, into individuals who realize that appearances are deceiving.
Satellite Radio: Will Howard Stern's move make us change the way we think about radio? Howard Stern's plan to move to satellite radio in January 2006 marks a major turning point for the radio industry. Not only has Stern brought the possibility of subscribing to satellite radio into the minds of the millions in his audience, he has also gotten more people to start thinking and talking about what really distinguishes satellite radio from traditional radio. Satellite radio was first authorized by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) in 1997, seven years after initial applications.
Many authors use the personification of inanimate objects to symbolize the feelings and expressions of their characters. One example of this is in John Cheever’s short story, "The Enormous Radio." Although critics argue that the characteristics of the radio are the opposite of those of Jim and Irene Westcott, the radio actually reflects the couple’s life.
In the music industry, there are several methods of sharing content. Between playing live shows, producing physical records, and now, streaming over music streaming services, artists and musicians from around the world contribute to the entertainment industry each day; however, in light of today’s technological age, more and more content is being shared and consumed through the later. In 2015, music streaming services grew to 317 billion streams, doubling the record amount of streams from the year prior—a figure that is only projected to grow in the years to come (“Nielsen: Music Streams”, 2016). Any consumer with an Internet connection can access these services’ content with
In acknowledgment of the way that your tastes may have turned into more recognizing in the years since you started sticking to Pandora blends, Thumbprint Radio will concentrate first on tunes you've preferred in the previous four or five months. Also, Pandora's barred a couple of kinds, particularly kids' music, traditional, drama, and occasion, that it supposes may conflict with whatever is left of your gushing library.
The problem threatens Pandora’s very existence. The lack of clarity with music governance regulations have been exploited by Pandora, but the question still remains: How can Pandora survive in case it faces such lawsuits again? Also, high competition from new players
The "business side of music is struggling to generate enough revenue because of the new technology" ("How the Internet Changed Music."). "Most of the people who are part of making a record are paid in royalties, and anytime music changes hands without money being involved, those royalties can’t be paid—which is why so much has been done in recent years to try and reduce music piracy"("How The Internet Changed Music."). iTunes and Amazon has helped by offering cheap downloads for single songs, which allows the customer to only purchase songs they like rather than the entire album ("How the Internet Changed Music."). Spotify and Pandora, who offer either ad-based or paid subscription streaming of their music libraries, are Internet radio stations which have also helped with the piracy problem ("How The Internet Changed
This paper aims to improve Spotify’s strategies in order to make its business more profitable.
Joe Kennedy, is the president and CEO who join Pandora in 2004 along with Tim Westergren making it one of the largest radio webcaster (internet online) used for streaming music all over the world. In 2007 disappointing news was delivered announcing that an increase in the sound royalties will increase over 2.5 times in a period of five years. In 2007 Pandora gained 5.7 million stating that in in the next two years it will all even out to what was gain in the previous years. Kennedy and Westergren believe that is more than fair to compensate artists for the copyright of using their music, since 1999 Pandora paid out $3.0 million for the use of copyright recording plus an additional $0.2 million for music published.
As the Strategic Director of iTunes, to create a barrier against the competition, I would: