STREAMING TSL:  Yesterday MusicWatch released an interesting data set on US music consumption via the internet.  What’s notable here is that the percentages aren’t just between the pureplays, but also include video music consumption from publishers like YouTube.  The headline is strong for Pandora – with 30% of overall online listening time.  It’s also good to see the gap between ad supported Pandora (27%) and free trial Spotify (11%).  The roughly 2.5-1 ratio is in line with Pandora’s addressability research, which shows 81M addressable listeners on Pandora vs. 33M on Spotify.  Good to know the numbers jive!  http://www.musicwatchinc.com/russ-crupnick/pandora-tops-rapidly-changing-us-music-streaming-market/

PODCASTING’S DOWNLOAD DILEMMA:  At this week’s NAB Radio Show in Nashville it’s safe to say podcasting is THE hot topic.  With more focus on podcasting’s content value, broadcasters and streamers alike are trying to solve the monetization piece of the puzzle.  Not surprisingly, Nielsen is nosing in with a proposed podcast measurement system.  This fits within Nielsen’s goal to measure all things audio, but I believe they’re focusing on the wrong part of the podcasting equation.  As you’ll see in this Radio Ink article, Nielsen is going to great lengths to develop and install SDKs which can track if/when a downloaded podcast is listened to.  They’re doing this to solve clients’ question about actually knowing an ad within a podcast is heard, because downloading doesn’t automatically mean listening to a podcast.  The work around, of course, is streaming.  When a podcast is streamed clients know who is listening and if they actually consumed the podcast.  This level of insight is available today on platforms like Pandora, and it doesn’t even require a Nielsen SDK.  http://radioink.com/2016/09/21/nielsen-measure-podcasts-2017/

THE 4As TAKES MATTERS INTO THEIR OWN HANDS:  And finally, we have another update in the back and forth between the 4As and the ANA on the issue of fee transparency within agencies and holding companies.  As you’ll recall, the ANA (client side) has accused some agencies of burying fees or hidden margins in the newer ad on services holding companies have built over the years.  The 4As (agency side), obviously disagrees.  In its latest move, the 4As is refusing to follow the transparency guidelines proposed by the ANA in July.  Instead, the 4As issued its own guidelines and is telling member agencies if they don’t follow the terms they can be kicked out of the group.  Obviously there’s still a ton of tension around the topic, and I don’t think we’ve heard the last of it.  But at least you have the latest.  http://adexchanger.com/agencies/4as-cracking-transparency-terms/?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTUdVeFpXUTFZamMxTkdZdyIsInQiOiJzV25QOU1ua29wSmhiMkVxUTJxbEhcL1VXdlNneDhReFc1TjVud0tOb3B1aWdTeEkzK1NYYUhxMWtIU3laWGVkVlwvWkJacVNRbWlnSEczOE9qVll2QzFySG9VRFZ0Q3ZBOTJqME5aNjZPanRBPSJ9

Have a great Thursday guys!

THE POWER OF IXI:  First up today, some great press around Pandora’s newly onboarded IXI data capabilities.  Because IXI is owned by Equifax it possess detailed information on every credit card purchase and almost half of the wealth savings data in the United States (sort of creepy, I know).  By matching IXI to registered user data, Pandora can surgically target consumers down to the street they live on, and yield extremely advanced FS audience segments.  Our very own Jordan Bick does a nice job of laying out IXI’s benefits to advertisers in this article.  The entire FS team (and their pods) have been trained in accessing this data for MPs.  So if you need help with IXI don’t hesitate to phone a FS friend!  http://adexchanger.com/data-exchanges/ad-platforms-onboard-equifaxs-ixi-attract-financial-services-advertisers/

STREAMING KEEPING THE LIGHTS ON:  Over the past month we’ve seen positive 1H earnings from the record labels on the strength of increased streaming royalties.  Now the RIAA is weighing in with the industry’s aggregated data.  In a word, streamings impact on the labels and their artists is MASSIVE!  The combination of on-demand royalties from pureplays like Spotify and Apple, combined with Pandora’s complusory royalty payments through SoundExchange, climbed to $1.6B for just the first six months of 2016.  That amount now represents 47% of the US record industry’s total revenue.  Over the coming quarters expect this percentage to go even higher.  http://rainnews.com/riaa-subscription-streaming-revenue-doubled-in-u-s-for-h1-2016/

STATE OF THE STATE:  And finally, yesterday I attended the RAIN conference in Nashville.  RAIN’s Editor, Kurt Hanson, kicked off the day with a keynote on the state of the streaming industry.  Perhaps the most interesting assurtion Kurt made is that by 2020 more total hours of music will be consumed via stream than broadcast in the US.  Maybe Kurt is being a little aggressive on the four-year timetable.  But it’s safe to say this could happen by 2022-23.  Inside Radio does a nice job of summarizing Kurt’s presentation in the link below.  Give it a read!  http://www.insideradio.com/free/rain-s-hanson-sees-positives-in-streaming-growth/article_a8613032-7f72-11e6-a37f-3fc67d89693d.html

Have a great Wednesday guys!

TV RATINGS UNIFICATION?:  Big news out of the Nielsen camp yesterday, as they gave a firm timetable for the release of their Television Total Audience Measurement product.  Over the past few years Nielsen has been trying to unify the video measurement landscape to create apples-to-apples ratings across TV, DVR, VOD and Connected TV.  All the while the TV networks have been screaming for this as their content consumption is getting more and more fragmented across the new technologies.  Nielsen is also trying to unify the Audio side with its still-in-the-works Digital Audio Measurement Platform.  Given that TV moves about a decade ahead of Radio with most tech advances, the radio broadcasters shouldn’t be holding their breath just yet.  http://www.adweek.com/news/television/nielsen-will-complete-its-total-audience-measurement-rollout-march-173586

IHEART TRIES COPYCATTING:  This morning the NY Post is reporting that iHeart is plans to announce the creation of new on-demand streaming options at (surprise) $5 and $10 per month.  If this happens it’ll be a direct reaction to last week’s announcements by Pandora.  The only thing which doesn’t really add up in the report is the fact that iHeart still needs to sign it’s label-direct licensing deals, yet they plan on announcing this week.  Those babies usually take weeks, if not months, to negotiate – so the timing seems off. I guess we shall see.  http://nypost.com/2016/09/20/iheartmedia-to-launch-spotify-music-streaming-competitor/

SWIMMING IN A DATA LAKE:  Warning on this last article – it’s like the double black diamond of data topics.  In it, the author lays out the case for “Data Laking” as the next progression in AdTech evolution.  In its simplest form a Data Lake is an anonymized collection of user data that’s derived from first party audience data and third party segment matches, and then optimized through usage.  A filled Data Lake can be extremely valuable to advertisers who want to buy prepackaged audience segments from the lake, and run those segments on any publisher or ad network they choose.  While it takes much more than the first party publisher to make Data Laking work, the whole ecosystem puts tremendous value on the originating publisher.  So publishers with scale, registered users, and a heavy mobile footprint (for the Device IDs) become even more essential in this model.  Thinking this is a good trend for the Mighty P . . .  should we have a naming contest for Pandora’s Data Lake?!?  http://adexchanger.com/the-sell-sider/first-party-data-lake/?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWkRCalltSXdNemt4TUdJNSIsInQiOiJrT3Yzenh3MWd4UTFlNE40MFQyS2VhMWx2bXU1KzNmUzVFZ096SHI2NVFDb1ErdDhGSnpPdytONzZ0dElCY2lFOTFBRDMrXC9jcnA5dGVYaDR3Z0JsOWNtZ3NnOUtuT0xmWWczU2hHbklaT2M9In0%3D

Have a great Tuesday guys!

BE A DATA REFINER:  To kick things off I’d like to share an interview I saw over the weekend featuring Publicis Chief Strategy Officer Rishad Tobaccowala.  This is an example of thought leadership 101 on the impact smart phones are having on our industry.  Mr. Tobaccowala puts forth two provocative points in the interview.  First, we’re only at the dawn of the Age of Empowerment – with consumers feeling the full impact of mobile technology over just the last 1,000 days.  And second, that data unto itself isn’t valuable – those who refine the data are the key to making it meaningful to marketers.  The way he compares data refining to the oil industry is spot on.  Good stuff to warm up the brain cells for the work week!  http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/publicis-chief-strategist-outsize-impact-mobile-phones-have-had-advertising-173518

MORE LICENSING PRESSURE:  It looks like all of Pandora’s label deals from the past week have relit the fire under Spotify to get their licensing house in order.  The following Bloomberg article accurately lays out the mousetrap they’re in.  Spotify says it needs to give listeners free trials in order to drive new subscription growth.  But labels hate the freemium model, and want to charge more in royalties per song than Spotify is willing or able to pay.  While this standoff ensues Spotify burns through cash and is unable to mounts a successful IPO.  It’ll be interesting to see who blinks first.  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-15/spotify-is-said-to-seek-reset-in-negotiations-with-record-labels

STREAMING GOES MAINSTREAM:  And finally, Nielsen is out with their annual Music 360 report, which includes stats on what percent of time Americans spend with the different music platforms.  This report is slightly different from Edison’s Share of Ear study, since it also includes Music Video consumption.  One interesting stat from Nielsen is that 80% of music listeners engage in streaming over the course of the year – ladies and gentlemen, we’ve officially hit critical mass!  The other cool tidbit is how relatively close the combination of Streaming Programmed Audio (aka Pandora) at 11%, and Streaming On-Demand Audio (aka Spotify/Apple) at 12%, are to Radio’s 27%.  So music consumption from the pureplays is at 23% compared to 27% from broadcast radio?  Thank you for the sales ammo Nielsen!  http://rainnews.com/nielsen-80-of-americans-stream-audio/

Have a great Monday guys!

SPOTIFY AT 40:  Between the flurry of Pandora press releases around licensing deals and product launches, yesterday Spotify quietly announced that it surpassed 40M worldwide subs.  They don’t break out the US portion of that number, which is an important asterisk on their total.  As I mentioned last week, Spotify and Apple continue to grow subs simultaneously, which means the streamers aren’t stealing from one another.  It’s truly a “high water level floats all boats” moment for the industry as internet-based listening continues to surge across the board.  http://rainnews.com/spotify-zips-up-to-40-million-subscribers/

NO TIDAL FOR APPLE:  It’s been a rough week in the trades for Tidal, so yesterday’s announcement by Jimmy Iovine that Apple has no interest in buying the streamer seems like icing on the cake.  With bad financials and a relatively small sub base, many industry experts saw an Apple acquisition as the only logical end game for Tidal.  Even “industry expert” Kanye West was on board with the idea based on his “give Jay his check” comment, which is one of my favorite quotes so far this year.  Maybe we should start a Go Fund Me page to help Jay Z out?  J  https://www.buzzfeed.com/reggieugwu/apple-not-buying-tidal?utm_term=.lpjQ4EY5m#.aqX8k4gmE

WORDS TO LIVE BY:  And finally, I wanted to end the week with some uplifting wisdom from Christine Koehne, who is one of Pandora’s Account Strategists in Chicago.  This quote was shared in Pandora Pulse and is now making the rounds on LinkedIn.  I think her comment is so spot about the mindset we should all have a various phases of our professional development.  Words to live by CK – thank you for inspiring us!

Have a great Friday (and weekend) guys!

DIGITAL KILLED THE TELEVISION STAR:  You’ve been hearing whispers about it for years . . . and now the days is here . . . Digital Ad Spending in the US is surpassing TV Ad spending.  Hello!!!  What’s even more amazing than that simple fact is eMarketer’s forecast moving forward.  On the current trend line by just 2020 there will be 43% more spending on Digital than on TV.  Of course, TV execs will tell you a good portion of Digital growth is from Digital Video, and that’s just an extension of their product.  That’s partly true.  However, we can safely say the age of King Television controlling ad budgets from the comfy couch of America’s living room has officially come to an end!  http://totalaccess.emarketer.com/View/Article/US-Digital-Ad-Spending-Surpass-TV-this-Year/1014469

AUDIO’S SHARE OF BRAIN GROWING:  Each quarter Strata surveys 1,000+ agencies to gage interest in various sectors of the media landscape.  As you’ll see in the following Inside Radio link, consideration towards all-things Audio is up.  This is mostly driven by an interest in Digital Audio – with a full 55% of agencies saying they expect to spend more on the streaming side in the upcoming year then they previously have.  This jives with the “Golden Age of Audio” narrative we’ve been espousing for a while now.  As streaming proliferates listeners will consume more overall audio, and this increasing time spent will command more attention (and budget) from clients and agencies alike.  Keep in mind this is just a survey of agency opinions, not hard fact.  But at least Audio is growing it’s prominence inside the minds of the buying community.  http://www.insideradio.com/audio-industry-growth-attracts-more-ad-agency-interest/article_9dc262d8-7b1a-11e6-bd0e-1b96d75d333e.html

TIDAL’S FUZZY MATH:  More news on Tidal in the trades this morning.  This time it’s Tidal’s financials from 2015.  For the whole year Tidal lost $28M USD, on the weight of $35M USD in content costs.  Perhaps the most interesting # in the report is Tidal’s worldwide subs – at just 3M.  (That’s about 1/12^th Spotify’s total if you’re keeping score.)  What’s crazy is that Tidal’s total top line revenue is just $47M – so a little more than $15 per listener per year.  Consider that Tidal’s subscriptions cost $10-20/month (so $120-240 per year), and you’ve got a major disconnect in the numbers.  Either they’ve given away a ton of subs and very few listeners are paying full rate, or listeners only subscribe for a month or two and then drop off.  Regardless of the cause, there’s some sketch in these financials.  http://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/tidal-lost-around-2m-a-month-last-year-while-seeking-extra-financing/

Have a great Thursday guys!

LABEL LICENSING-PALOOZA:  First up today is a scattering of articles from the various radio trades on yesterday’s label direct licensing announcements.  As usual, RAIN has the most in-depth coverage with a fairly detailed guesstimate on our strategic roadmap moving forward.  Obviously yesterday was only the beginning of the next chapter for Pandora’s product evolution.  Of course it’s an exciting time internally.  And it’s also nice to see that we’ve captured the marketplace’s full attention! (1) http://rainnews.com/pandora-closes-licensing-deals-draws-closer-to-new-service-launch/  (2) http://www.insideradio.com/free/latest-pandora-strategy-could-yield-b-sub-business/article_7dbec1bc-7a47-11e6-9586-3f74394c07c6.htm (3) http://radioink.com/2016/09/13/7589/

POSITIVE FORECAST:  Zenith Media is out with a rosy forecast on US Ad Spending – adjusting up its 2016 annual forecast to +4.4%.  This isn’t surprising give the quadrennial injection of ad money for Summer Olympics and the Prez Election.  What’s even more encouraging is that Zenith is forecasting another 3-4% growth in 2017 and again in 2018, which means they’re not expecting a “peak and reset” after 2016.  Zenith does a nice job of breaking down the projections for the different media types, so give it a read.  And some quick notes on the graph below – these percentages are from 2015 since it’s the last complete year data set.  And Internet Radio is bucketed under Internet instead of Radio. http://www.insideradio.com/zenith-global-ad-market-growing-to-b/article_c0924410-7988-11e6-9920-87ad077349b5.html

GIMME MY MONEY!:  Ok, here’s a weird one.  Tidal is accumulating a small mountain of unpaid bills, and several companies have initiated a debt collection processes against them.  Some of these seem a little small not to pay – although I would have enjoyed being at the $6,200 USD Norwegian dinner they had an outstanding bill for. J  Maybe just an operational hiccup in Tidal’s Accounts Payable department?  Or maybe where there’s smoke there’s fire? http://www.businessinsider.com/jay-z-music-streaming-service-tidal-accused-of-not-paying-its-bills-2016-9

Have a great Wednesday guys!

DETERMINISTIC DOUBTS:  In Chicago last week AdExchanger hosted an industry conference on all things programmatic.  Included was a really interesting session on Identify Graphing, which AdAge picked up in the following link.  Identify graphing, if you’ll recall, is the collection of profile data on individual consumers.  Just picture a virtual file with a bunch on linked information on individuals – like email address, device id, demo info, etc., all connected.  Obviously a completed identify graph is the holy grail for marketers.  It’s generally assumed that deterministic data (like user registration data on Pandora) helps marketers complete these graphs. But as you’ll read in the article, there’s even skepticism over the validity of the deterministic data.  Hence the dilemma . . . marketers are relying more heavily on data than ever before, but even the most reliable data sources may not be reliable enough.  http://adage.com/article/digital/marketers-identity-graphs-accurate/305787/

CAN CLIENTS AND AGENCIES JUST BE FRIENDS?:  There’s been much press in the last few months about the growing conflict between clients and their agencies over fee transparency, rebating, and the general feeling that agencies are prioritizing their profits over client needs.  I think the following MediaPost article is a refreshing and logical take on the situation, from sort of a “cooler heads will prevail” point of view.  The author’s main takeaways are that most clients still believe in the value agencies bring to the partnership, and clients just want a few relatively easy-to-make changes in the relationship.  The biggest two suggested changes are a la’ carte options, so clients can self-select the services within agency holding companies they want to pay, and fee transparency to know what they’re paying for and how their agencies are making money.  Not a list of crazy asks, right?  I’m thinking there’s an opportunity in here for agencies willing to take up these compromises.  http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/284481/the-new-normal-in-agency-client-relationships.html?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiT0RWa09XWXpaall5TUdWbCIsInQiOiI0Z083RnRvR1NIaVJcL3o0NWxCV2IwMndTVEE0MjJjZVI2K1IwOG9nNDc0bFY5NU53Y2JDUmpJdkNvU0s0WkRDb0FucGJkdEFkNkg2M0N2THpnMFwveWR1YklvNE1DaVwvU0kyRmx1dnlxMlk0VT0ifQ%3D%3D

CHICAGO OFFICE SHOUT OUT:  Next up is kind of a fun shout out for Pandora Chicago.  Our Chicago office has been commended by a few local publications for our innovative office design and work environment. We’ve even nominated for the 2016 Crain’s Coolest Office award!  The following link is some press pickup from Michigan Avenue Magazine – nice kudos for us!  Huge thanks to Joe Drucker, Dan O’Neal and our entire Facilities team for given us such a state of the art facility to call home!  http://michiganavemag.com/the-coolest-offices-in-chicago

LABEL LOVE:   And finally, lots of buzz in the trades today about Pandora’s announcement of Label Direct licensing deals.  I’ll let the press announcements you’re seeing this morning speak for themselves.  Sufficed to say this is a big day for the Mighty P!!!

Have a great Tuesday guys!

TARGETING BY ITSELF A NO-NO?:  A special Editor’s shout out to Karina Montgomery for forwarding me this beet.tv article and video.  It’s an interview with MEC Chief Digital Officer Carl Fremont.  Towards the beginning of the interview he makes the point that the pendulum has swung too far towards micro-targeting via data, and that brands need to find a better balance of storytelling on top of targeting.  This is an echo of what P&G CMO Mark Pritchard said a few weeks ago on their decision to reduce targeted ads on FB.  So this seems to be an emerging trend which more marketers are embracing.  Towards the end of the piece Mr. Fremont touches on video – stressing the importance of mobile and viewability as the next chapter in video’s evolution.  The interview is eight minutes long, but worth sticking with. http://www.beet.tv/2016/09/carl-fremont-demexco.html

DIGITAL TRENDS FROM THE PAST WEEK:  Late Friday AdWeek released its top digital trends from the past week.  Such and interesting list this week – everything from the social power of Pumpkin Spice Latte (who knew?!?), to Snapchat’s revenue growth, to Apple Music’s sub growth.  You guys already know about the big stuff – but it’s always a helpful look back.  http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/9-digital-marketing-stats-you-need-see-week-173370

BE A SHARK THIS MORNING:  And finally, this one’s an oldie but goodie and always gives me a chuckle on a Monday.  But there’s actually an important message in the Shark Monday proverb.  Our industry is loaded with talented people who work their butts off from noon on Monday until noon on Friday.  So how can you give yourself a competitive edge – it’s the work you do Monday morning and Friday afternoon.  Nobody needs to work 70-80 hours a week, a la Marissa Meyers, to get ahead.  Just give it 40-45 hours per week, and make sure every one of those hours counts.  It’s amazing how much further you can get ahead when you have your game face on at 9:00a on Monday, while everyone else is still trying to figure out the Keurig machine and gabbing about their weekend!

Have a  great “Shark Monday” guys!

TIM BEING TIM:  Earlier this week Tim made headlines at an investor conference by talking about a variety of topics.  Two of the most relevant ones for us are covered in the following RAIN article.  First, Tim gets very specific about Pandora’s vision for on-demand.  We’ve known internally about the 3-tiered approach for a while, and he resoundingly confirmed our intentions with his comments.  And second, he reinforces Pandora’s opposition to exclusive stream releases, which have been Apple Music and Tidal’s bread and butter play to drive new subs.  It’s great to see Tim forcefully lead on important industry issues like this!  http://rainnews.com/pandoras-tim-westergren-looks-forward-exclusives-are-a-losing-battle/

MORE SHADE ON EXCLUSIVES:  And speaking of exclusives, more pushback from the labels as noted by the WSJ.  My guess it that you’ll see fewer and fewer of these going forward.  http://www.insideradio.com/free/record-industry-looks-to-skip-streaming-exclusives/article_33e9cea4-7661-11e6-acd4-177ceb116238.html

ANYONE WANT TO BUY SOME DATA?:  The following AdAge article offers a glimpse into a fascinating trend that’s emerging amongst the largest national retailers – they’re becoming data platforms themselves.  For years both Target (Bullseye) and Walmart (WMX) have operated their own DMPs.  Pandora is already connected to both programmatically.  Now Target is taking the capability one step further by openly packing and marketing the data to CPG vendors who want to market to their customers out of store.  My guess is that it’s only a matter of time before hundreds of large national companies who already collect data will be doing the same.  http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/advertise-a-target-shopper-luck/305753/?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiT0RrMU16azNNbVE1T0RObSIsInQiOiI4QTNIZHRReFRWcXR6d2NGWkx5VmV3TmpqTWUwd3BGWFRnVFhMUHV5b25uVWRxV2RMQm01eWRKVSt0RFFldlBBTEF5S2tvYVNBaEQ1cVUrTTFuY3dVdWZ1SllGR1hhNnVFQlwvUEJQMlJLeG89In0%3D

HISPANIC 101:  And finally, we’re already well-armed with data on our Hispanic audience, but it’s still nice to get a reminder of the power behind segment from an outside source.  With that in mind, check out the following Social Code article.  Really pay attention to points 6/7/8 – they speak to the prevalence of online usage by US Hispanics.  And then note 15, in regards to the language question.   Pandora’s Hispanic uniques represent one of our most powerful audience segs.  Tie our audience strength to stats like this and you’ve got a very compelling sell!  http://socialcode.com/thought-leadership/blog/insights-brief-15-stats-digital-marketers-know-hispanic-consumers/

Have a great Friday (and weekend) guys!