Pandora vs. Spotify Special . . .

(Editor’s Note:  No, it’s not your imagination.  Today’s DG is being completely devoted to articles related to Pandora and Spotify.  There’s quite a bit going on in Audio Streaming space right now, so I thought it would be a good time for a check in.)

PANDORA’S DATA ON DEMAND:  First up today is the announcement of a partnership between Pandora and Neustar that allows advertisers to tap into audience segmentation data on demand.  The new arrangement sets up a self-service API which provides access to Pandora’s 2,000+ existing audience segments, and allows brands to create new custom segments by matching their own CRM data.  Because of the real time nature of the API, brands can model out segments they’re interested in to check scale, match rate, etc., right as they’re ready to transact.  This takes the guess work out of the usual 3rd party data arrangements (which usually provide reporting on a look back basis), and not require cumbersome DRAs (data rights agreements) between Pandora and a given brand.  All in it’s a win-win for advertisers and Pandora who are looking to leverage data to streamline and optimize their media buying.

SPOTIFY’S ROYALTIES U-TURN:  Who’s ready to rumble over the issue of streaming royalties?  Apparently Spotify is.  According to the attached Digital Music News article Spotify is now challenging the very definition of mechanical reproduction and distribution of music, because they claim streaming isn’t a mechanical process.  Last week this argument was made by Spotify in a court filed response to a $365M lawsuit from Bluewater Music Services for the unauthorized streaming of Bluewater’s artists’ songs.  The term mechanical is key here since the original copyright regulations were set up to cover the reproduction of songs onto a physical medium (like a vinyl record).  Spotify’s argument is that streaming is a completely different format based on access, and it isn’t ‘reproducing’ anything.  What’s weird about this line of thinking is that Spotify does concede that downloading (a la Napster) is mechanical in nature, and thus subject to royalty payments.  And what’s hypocritical about this argument is that in May Spotify settled a $75M lawsuit with the National Music Publishers Association for this very same type of mechanical reproduction and distribution of songs they didn’t have royalty rights to.  So why the U-turn in legal strategy?  My guess is that Spotify knows they can’t afford to keep paying out on one-off royalties lawsuits, so they’re trying to draw a line in the sand with this new mechanical minutia.  Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem like a very strong argument at all.

PANDORA VS. SPOTIFY – A TALE OF THE TAPE:  And finally today, the attached Barrron’s article (Pandora vs. Spotify) provides an objective and unfettered comparison of Pandora’s and Spotify’s audience strengths through the ad sales lens.  The main takeaways – Spotify is still in high growth mode but significantly trails Pandora in ad supported scale (Barron estimates Pandora has ~75% more addressable scale in the US than Spotify).  This gives Pandora an operational advantage to leverage national and local ad spending.  On the other hand, Spotify’s commands a lead in terms of ad product technology – especially with its Programmatic offerings.  On balance both streamers have the ability to succeed in the ever-growing streaming marketplace.  For Spotify it will take a commitment to the free ad-supported side in order to grow it’s addressable scale.  For Pandora it means advancing how it transacts inventory from the significant audience advantage it already has.  It’s a fascinating analysis, to say the least.

Have a great Tuesday guys!

50 thoughts on “Pandora vs. Spotify Special . . .

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