Pandora Radio

Pandora Internet Radio (also known as Pandora Radio or simply Pandora) is an automated music recommendation service and "custodian" of the Music Genome Project. The service, operated by Pandora Media, Inc., is fully available in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. The service plays musical selections of a certain genre based on the user's artist selection. The user then provides positive or negative feedback for songs chosen by the service, which are taken into account when Pandora selects future songs.

While listening, users are offered the ability to buy the songs or albums at various online retailers. Over 400 different musical attributes are considered when selecting the next song. These 400 attributes are combined into larger groups called focus traits. There are 2,000 focus traits. Examples of these are rhythm syncopation, key tonality, vocal harmonies, and displayed instrumental proficiency.

The Pandora media player is based on OpenLaszlo. Pandora can also be accessed through many media streaming devices, such as the Roku, Reciva-based radios (from companies like Grace Digital, Sanyo, and Sangean), Frontier Silicon-based connected audio systems, Slim Devices, and Sonos product(s). On July 11, 2008, Pandora launched a mobile version of their software for the Apple iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch through the iTunes App Store. Pandora is also available for Windows Phone, Android phones, BlackBerry platforms, HP webOS (used on the Palm Pre, Palm Pixi, Palm Pre 2, and HP Veer). Pandora was the provider for MSN Radio until MSN discontinued their internet radio service on June 18, 2008. A modified version of Pandora has been made available for Sprint Nextel.

The service has two subscription plans: a free subscription supported by advertisements, and a fee-based subscription without ads. There are also ads in Pandora Mobile for mobile phones and the Pandora in The Home computer appliance. Most users choose the free subscription.

In May 2010, Pandora was named in Lead411's 2010 Hottest San Francisco Companies list. In January 2011, Pandora met with investment banks to consider a possible $100 million IPO. The company filed with the SEC for a $100mm IPO on February 11, 2011 and officially began trading on the New York Stock Exchange with ticker symbol "P" on June 15, 2011 at a price of $16/share. This gave them a valuation of nearly $2.6 billion.

As of IPO, Pandora had 800,000 tracks from 80,000 artists in its library, and 80 million users. In 2012, Pandora was reported to have over 150 million users.

During its 2011 fiscal year, Pandora reported $138 million in revenue with a $1.8 million net loss, excluding the cost of a special dividend associated with the IPO.