Pandora to close Australian operations within the month
Music streaming service Pandora is closing its doors in Australia after five years. Staff were told on Tuesday, with the office to shut within the month.
The service will be axed for Australian listeners “over the next few weeks”.
The news comes a day after Business Insider Australia reported the CEO of Pandora, Tim Westergren was stepping down.
It also follows Jane Huxley, managing director for Australia and New Zealand’s departure from the company in March, after four and a half years. Her replacement had not yet been announced.
In Standard Media Index numbers for 2016, which emerged in January, Pandora was lagging behind streaming rival Spotify. The SMI data estimated that while Spotify’s revenues had doubled to $11.9m, Pandora was flat for the year on $6.2m.
Pandora officially relaunched in Australia in 2012, after a five-year hiatus, and since then has built its offering beyond its radio streaming service to compete in the local market.
In August last year, Pandora brought its first events division to Australia for the first time, announcing Holden as its major sponsor.
The brand also became the first streaming company to let its users share music through iMessage.
Pandora also re-branded in October last year, attempting to enhance its “listeners’ music experience and help bring their music to life.”
Earlier this year, Pandora also announced its new mobile ad formats, appointed Carat Media as its media agency of record, created a radio station to complement the print magazine Rolling Stone, and launched music genre sponsorships for advertisers in the Australian market.
A Pandora spokesperson said: “After diligent analysis, we have decided to discontinue our operations in Australia and New Zealand and expect to wind down the service for listeners over the next few weeks. While our experience in these markets reinforces the broader global opportunity long-term, in the short-term we must remain laser-focused on the expansion of our core business in the United States.”
Pandora is the not the first streaming service to leave the Australian market.
In February 2014, Deezer closed its Sydney office, continuing to operate a full service for Australia and New Zealand from Singapore and Paris.
Deezer’s closure was later followed by the departure of Telstra’s streaming service Mog, which moved towards offering free subscriptions to Apple Music for mobile customers.
Other streaming platforms, including Rdio – which was bought by Pandora – JB Hi-Fi’s Now Music and Guvera have also closed down.
So now it’s Pandora’s turn, how long before Spotify shuts it’s doors as it continues to bleed red ink, there is not one streaming service anywhere making money and only Apple’s deep pockets keep their service a float.
Something has got to give, the current streaming business model is obviously unsustainable, the music labels need to sit down with current and future providers and work this out otherwise piracy will fill the void as I can’t imagine younger people going back to CDs.
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Feeling for the amazing people I worked with in Australia
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Er, Spotify is about to IPO and TAYLOR SWIFT is back so not sure you’re right.
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Yes, Taylor Swift is a solid business model
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I really do miss Rdio.
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Sad to see in terms of a good service that was offering a slightly different music experience compared to it’s rivals in OZ. No doubt a victim of circumstances playing out back in the US mothership.
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I also really miss Rdio. The application was beautiful. Mobile, Desktop, web. All much much nicer than the others. I was hoping Pandora, after buying Rdio, would do something good with it… But it just never happened. And now this.
Quick, someone buy Rdio back off of them and get it going again!?
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The business model of music streaming is really difficult to make work… bulk of revenues are consumed by variable licensing costs. Pandora missed the market with the rise of on-demand, but that aside, the core economics never added up, hence the focus on diversifying revenue from ads & subs. Ad funded never paid for itself… Subscription content models are gaining momentum and while Spotify continues to burn $$, alongside Apple they’re becoming the dominant global service which will likely mean increased prices for consumers… which in reality is the only way the industry becomes profitable (that or someone else subsidises it for the consumer as is occurring with telco bundles).
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Business is business I suppose, but there goes all my built-up playlist preferences and I’m left chasing the remainder of this year’s Pandora One subscription.
A real bummer.
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I really liked Pandora, listened to it every single day for hours. I will miss it!
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