Music-streaming service Pandora unveils new data breakdown feature for artists

22 Oct 2014

Music-streaming service Pandora has announced a new resource for musicians that provides data insights on their work.

Through Pandora’s Artist Marketing Platform (AMP), musicians will now be able to chart how many times their songs are played via the personalised internet radio programme and even what areas their music is most popular.

According to company founder Tim Westergren, the feature will help bands develop Pandora as a platform for their music, going as far as to recalling a story of his own gigging days as part of the AMP pitch.

“When I was about 28, a band I was in drove 1,098 miles from San Francisco to Telluride, Colorado, to play a club gig,” wrote Westergren in a blog post.

“It was our first trip to the state and we were excited to be on the road. We arrived just a few hours before soundcheck, and we spent that time putting flyers on telephone polls and walking around town spreading the word, passing out printed invitations. About 15 people showed up for the gig.

“We didn’t really know any better at the time. We figured that’s what working bands do. You pay your dues, play tons of shows, drive thousands of miles and hope you build some buzz and catch a break. Some of the bands we played with went on to successful careers. But most, like us, eventually threw in the towel. We moved on for the same reason most working artists do; we had no platform to get large-scale exposure.”

The service boasts more than 76m listeners and more than 125,000 artists, but is currently only available in the US, Australia and New Zealand. Having been forced to scale back its operation, the company says its working on going global once more.

Music listening image via Shutterstock

Dean Van Nguyen was a contributor to Silicon Republic

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