Pandora (service)

Pandora is an American subscription-based music streaming service owned by the broadcasting corporation SiriusXM that is based in Oakland, California, United States. The service carries a focus on recommendations based on the "Music Genome Project", which is a means of classifying individual songs by musical traits such as genres and shared instrumentation. The service originally launched in the consumer market as an internet radio service that would generate personalized channels based on these traits as well as specific tracks liked by the user; this service is available in an advertising-supported tier and additionally a subscription-based version. In 2017, the service launched Pandora Premium, which is an on-demand version of the service more in line with contemporary competitors. The company was founded in 2000 as Savage Beast Technologies, and initially conceived as a business-to-business company licensing the Music Genome Project to retailers as a recommendation platform. In 2005, the company shifted its focus to the consumer market by launching Pandora as an internet radio product. Pandora is a freemium service; basic features are free with advertisements or limitations, while additional features, such as improved streaming quality, music downloads and offline channels are offered via paid subscriptions. In February 2019, SiriusXM acquired Pandora for $3.5 billion in stock. In 2021, Pandora had about 55.9 million active monthly users, and 6.4 million subscribers. As of 2022, Pandora reportedly had fewer than 50 million active users. As of 2023, there were 46 million users.