{"id":343175,"date":"2017-06-09T02:51:06","date_gmt":"2017-06-08T18:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1501380"},"modified":"2017-06-09T02:51:06","modified_gmt":"2017-06-08T18:51:06","slug":"pandora-adds-a-continuous-listening-mode-with-autoplay-while-considering-a-sirius-xm-investment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/pandora-adds-a-continuous-listening-mode-with-autoplay-while-considering-a-sirius-xm-investment\/","title":{"rendered":"Pandora adds a continuous listening mode with AutoPlay, while considering a Sirius XM investment"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Pandora today is rolling out a new feature<\/a> to its Premium tier that will allow subscribers to continue to listen to music, uninterrupted, when their current track, album or playlist ends. Called, simply, \u201cAutoPlay,\u201d the feature works by shifting users to a personalized radio station based on whatever it is you were listening to before.<\/p>\n

AutoPlay \u2014 a feature carried over<\/a> from Rdio, which was bought by Pandora<\/a> in 2015 for $75 million \u2014\u00a0was said<\/a> to be in the works when Pandora first launched its Spotify competitor in March of this year.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s now available to both iOS and Android users, and can be toggled on while listening to music or managed from the app\u2019s Settings.<\/p>\n

Pandora says the feature could be particularly useful in certain scenarios \u2014 like when you\u2019re working out at the gym and don\u2019t have time to fiddle with your music, or when you\u2019re hosting a party but don\u2019t want to stop your conversations to play DJ, for example.<\/p>\n

But as Variety notes<\/a>, AutoPlay has another advantage, as well. Because radio streaming has different rights associated with it compared with on-demand listening, Pandora can leverage the new feature to work around the problem with music exclusives that launch on rivals like Apple Music, Tidal or Spotify.\"\"<\/p>\n

For example, the report said,\u00a0Taylor Swift\u2019s \u201c1989\u201d album can only be listened to on demand on Apple Music, while Pandora users can only play her prior album \u201cRed\u201d on demand. But if they switch on AutoPlay, when \u201cRed\u201d ends, it\u2019s likely that Pandora will start mixing in tracks from \u201c1989\u201d \u2014 which it is able to play through its radio service.<\/p>\n

The news of AutoPlay\u2019s launch arrives alongside other news related to Pandora\u2019s agreement with private equity firm\u00a0KKR.\u00a0In May, KKR\u00a0had agreed to buy\u00a0$150 million in Series A preferred Pandora shares<\/a> in a month\u2019s time, and be paid a 7.5 percent or 8 percent quarterly dividend, while also taking a board seat. The cash was intended to help Pandora regain its footing in today\u2019s music market, which now heavily favors newer, on-demand services.<\/p>\n

However, while that investment is cleared to close, Pandora announced today<\/a> that it and KKR have agreed to an extension of their earlier agreement. The extension will allow Pandora to instead explore interest expressed by a \u201cstrategic investor\u201d who wants to make a \u201csubstantial minority investment in the company,\u201d a brief\u00a0announcement<\/a> from Pandora explains.<\/p>\n

That investor is Sirius XM, according to both Reuters<\/a> and CNBC<\/a> sources, though Pandora hasn\u2019t confirmed.<\/p>\n

Sirius XM had previously been negotiating with Pandora to acquire the company in its entirety, but couldn\u2019t get a deal done due to disagreements over price, the reports say. It\u2019s unclear for now what Sirius XM\u2019s terms for this new investment would be, or if the deal will go through.<\/p>\n

But with Pandora missing its June 8 deadline for finding a buyer or taking the funds from KKR, Pandora\u2019s stock tanked today<\/a>, hitting its lowest point in more than a year.\u00a0The sell-off<\/a> could make Pandora more of an acquisition target.<\/p>\n

While the drama surrounding Pandora\u2019s future continues, the company did today release numbers that seem to indicate those testing Pandora\u2019s Premium tier are at least enjoying its features.<\/p>\n

According to Pandora, nearly 60 percent of trials are from those under the age of 35, and their favorite feature is the personalized \u201cMy Thumbs Up\u201d playlist. As their trials continue, users launch Pandora more often \u2014 over half listen more than six days per week, and listening hours increase more than 30 percent during their trial.<\/p>\n

In addition, 97 percent of Premium users are listening to a playlist Pandora created for them via \u201cMy Thumbs Up\u201d or \u201cLinked\u201d playlists, and listeners have kept 86 percent of songs from the \u201cAdd Similar Songs\u201d feature on their playlists, Pandora says.<\/p>\n

Plus, as Barron\u2019s noted, Pandora CEO Tim Westergren said at a music conference Tuesday that Pandora accounts for 40 percent of music listening on Amazon Echo and 50 percent on Sonos speakers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" Pandora today is rolling out a new feature to its Premium tier that will allow subscribers to continue to listen to music, uninterrupted, when their current track, album or playlist ends. Called, simply, “AutoPlay,” the feature works by shifting users to a personalized radio station based on whatever it is you were listening to before. Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5817,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,25],"tags":[59,66,26],"class_list":["post-343175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-technology","tag-media","tag-techcrunch","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343175\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}