Pandora To Acquire Next Big Sound

Pandora, the leading Internet radio service, announced that it has agreed to acquire Next Big Sound, the leading provider of online music analytics, for an undisclosed sum. The deal marks the latest step in Pandora’s commitment to become an indispensable partner to the music industry and accelerates its strategy of harnessing data for the benefit of music makers.

“Next Big Sound shares our passion for music and respect for those who make it. I’m incredibly excited to unleash the combined potential of our two companies and have the Next Big Sound team join us.”

This acquisition will provide Pandora with a powerful analytics tool used by tens of thousands of music makers, labels and marketers looking for data and insights about artists and their fans. Launched in 2009, Next Big Sound combines music consumption data into one centralized platform. The music industry counts on Next Big Sound to:
* Quantify the relationship between social media and revenue.
* Understand the impact of marketing and promotional events such as TV appearances, press interviews, and new releases.
* Drive marketing decisions for artists, managers, agents, publishers, promoters, labels and brands across the global music industry.
* Deploy prediction algorithms to help identify high-potential artists at the earliest possible stage.

“The combination of Pandora’s listening data and Next Big Sound’s analytical capabilities will create a vital source of data,” said Brian McAndrews, CEO at Pandora. “Next Big Sound shares our passion for music and respect for those who make it. I’m incredibly excited to unleash the combined potential of our two companies and have the Next Big Sound team join us.”

“We are thrilled to be joining Pandora,” said Alex White, CEO at Next Big Sound. “In them, we’ve found a great partner who, like us, believes data has the power to transform the music industry.”

Next Big Sound will expand the suite of data-driven products Pandora offers music makers, the core of which is Pandora’s Artist Marketing Platform (AMP) that offers both Artist Insights as well as Artist Audio Messaging. Next Big Sound’s capabilities will complement these offerings, which are designed to help music makers grow their careers. Next Big Sound’s offering will also be enhanced through the addition of Pandora’s data on music preferences, patterns and trends. Pandora’s data reflects insights from nearly 80 million monthly active users who have provided more than 50 billion thumbs on tracks played. Added to Next Big Sound’s current insights, the data set powered by both companies will deliver an unprecedented trove of information to the music industry.

The acquisition will also benefit brands that advertise with Pandora by delivering access to insights that can help them identify artists to partner with and measure the reach and impact they achieve through those partnerships.

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions.

Source: Pandora