Listeners are tuning into the online radio service, Pandora (News - Alert) Media, which is making the company very happy since there seems to be little profit in the music streaming industry. The numbers are showing a vast increase in listening hours, 65 percent, from last October.

Pandora grabbed 6.55 percent of the radio listening crowd; whereas, it only garnered 4.27 percent last year. This percentage translates into 59.2 million listeners of Pandora. This is a good sign for the company, since its stocks have dropped 44 percent in the last 12 months.


Image via www.pandora.com

Pandora is a customer-friendly Internet radio station that allows users to select a song or an artist and Pandora creates a “station” with songs similar to what has been chosen by the listener. The listener can rate the song that is being played and with a positive rating, songs and artists similar to that style of music are selected to play in the future. With a negative rating, that song will not be repeated in the future and it will help establish a “station” that will give a more enjoyable experience to the listener.

When a user listens to Pandora, they are given the opportunity to buy the song, or the album from which it came from, at several different online vendors. Pandora has more than 800,000 songs by more than 80,000 artists in its library; this creates a large selection from Pandora’s 80 million users to choose from.

In July of 2008, Pandora launched their mobile services in the iTunes App Store. As well as Apple’s (News - Alert) iOS, used in iPhones and iPads, they made their services available for Android, Blackberry, HP webOS and WindowsMobile users.

Pandora is hoping to see increased usage by listeners now that manufacturers like BMW, Buick, Ford, GMC, Honda (News - Alert), Hyundai, Lexus, Lincoln, Mercedes Benz, Nissan, and Toyota are installing radios in their latest models of cars, which will allow drivers to use Pandora. If a user does not currently have a radio with those capabilities, radio manufacturers Alpine, Clarion, Jensen, JVC Mobile Entertainment, Kenwood, Pioneer, and Sony are making aftermarket radios that will have the same capabilities.