CN Community Discussion With Pandora Founder Tim Westergren

Today I had a chance to speak with Chief Strategy Officer and Founder of Pandora, Tim Westergren. Rather than conduct a normal interview, I asked ya’all for questions that you wanted answers to regarding Pandora. Almost all of your questions were answered and I think we even grabbed a scoop! If you like this style, let me know and we can get more founders and executives to stop by CN and answer your raw questions.

Baratunde Thurston and Goktug Oguz want to know why Pandora isn’t available outside the U.S.

Tim explained that it’s all contingent on royalties and license issues. He said that licensing is a "real mess" both inside and outside the U.S. They are eager to get the service going worldwide and are working hard to do what they can.

Someone asked about how Pandora plans to generate revenue from the iPhone application.

Tim said that iPhone monetization will come from a combination of audio and visual advertising and will launch before the end of 2008.

Rob Diana and Bassam Islam had questions about the Blackberry client regarding availability and why there is a fee but no fee for the iPhone client.

Tim says that they have to charge for the Blackberry client because the carriers force the fee. Apple was the first to allow free applications and Tim believes other carriers will follow suit soon.

Jericho wanted to know when a Windows Mobile client would be released.

They are hard at work on a Windows Mobile client.

Ben Borges wanted to know how indie musicians can get their music on Pandora.

Send your CD to Pandora – they listen to everything they receive and their music editors decide if the music is listed on Pandora.

Brent Newhall wanted me to find out what’s been the biggest surprise so far for Tim.

Tim says the biggest surprise is how fast the service has grown. Over 15 million registered listeners, 700,000 new listeners added each month. Most listeners tell 6 people about the service and they haven’t spent one penny on marketing.

Sacca wants to spend more money on Pandora but wants an easier impulse interface.

Tim says they are working hard to make it as easy as possible for everyone to spend their money with Pandora – they are also working on coverage for all songs listed on Pandora.

Other notes from our call:

• Most usage is at work on the desktop/laptop. The mobile percentage is growing and Tim says that the iPhone is so important to get more usage in the car and outside the home and office.
• 70% of the music on Pandora comes from artists who are not signed by a major record label.
• Pandora is based in Oakland and there are 120 members of the Pandora team, half are musicians who do music analysis of each song that comes in to be added to the service.

Thanks to Tim for spending some time with me today and thanks to everyone for their great questions! Also check out Jake’s review of Music 2.0.