The Pandora Playback for Advertisers

It’s time for Pandora Playback—the moment when we highlight the top trends of the year, giving our listeners a chance to reflect on their annual streaming audio habits. 

As a whole, our audience consumed quite a mix of music. Pandora hit a major milestone, surpassing 118 billion thumbs on the platform. From pop anthems and Latin chart-toppers, to timeless classics of the '80s and '90s, it’s clear that Pandora is built around personalization and discovery. 

We know how fun reviewing your Playback can be as a listener, but our year-end listening trends also provide a treasure trove of valuable insights for marketers. So let’s rewind and take a look at the unforgettable hits that made 2024 a record-breaking year for our listeners and advertisers. 

Track 1: In Our Feels

It’s no secret that we at Pandora are obsessed with our listeners, collecting billions of user data signals each day. This year, we forged an even closer connection through mood-based listening, Pandora’s music-centered technology that tags a song directly to a mood or activity. We took a deeper look at what the top mood-based listening categories were for 2024. People were clearly in their feels, and it showed.

All of that increased mood-based engagement meant we could continue to innovate our targeting solutions for advertisers and allow brands to connect with consumers when they are in the headspace to receive relevant ads. This year, mood contextual targeting was expanded to be a part of all streaming select audio products, meaning advertisers can now target moods across AudioXP, Connected Home, Connected Vehicle, Web and more. 

Track 2: Living...And Reliving

This year was a landmark year for culture, with music at the center of nearly every defining moment. TIt was packed with sold-out tours, high-profile album drops, and headline-making music beefs, cementing audio as a key driver of conversation and connection across the globe.

We've seen remarkable surges in Pandora streams and skyrocketing popularity for artists like Anitta, Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, and Megan Thee Stallion, who all dominated the cultural landscape through their trailblazing performances and unforgettable appearances.

Social trends also had a huge impact on the spins on Pandora, with audiences of all ages and demos flooding Pandora to hear the songs that are taking over their social media feeds: 

• “Thats So True” by Gracie Abrams fuels Tik Tok year in review montages, and causes a 4,000% increase in spins on Pandora

• Drake made an Instagram burner account in September, releasing new tracks and content through the profile. It contributed to a 1.2M spin surge on Pandora

• After announcing his single “Get By” will be ESPN’s College Game Day anthem, Pandora Artist Accelerator alumn Jelly Roll saw a +44% increase in spins

Track 3: Fueling the Future of Music

Pandora has a long history of spotting the next big thing in music, and this year was no exception. From our Artist Accelerator program, which spotlighted Grammy-nominated artists like Coco Jones this year, to singers like Sabrina Carpenter incorporating Pandora into her Short 'n Sweet album promo, the biggest names in music recognize our influence and ability to empower the next generation of legends.

Breakout star Teddy Swims is a prime example, having had a banner year that all started on Pandora. Let’s take a deeper look at how his journey began:

Our strong reputation in the industry starts with our award-winning curation and programming team, who continue to be recognized year after year. In 2024, many members of the Pandora family were featured on Billboard's Power Player list of the most influential music executives.

Track 4: Carpool Kareoke-ing

Music has always been a critical part of the driving experience, and connected car listening represented the fastest-growing platform on Pandora this year. 

Pandora’s in-vehicle growth allowed us to also grow in-car opportunities for advertisers. Now, advertisers can incorporate the car into their existing cross-channel programmatic buys, bringing all the data, frequency, and budget control advantages of DSP buying to this unique and differentiated environment.

Our in-car innovations are only just getting started. Next year, we're building on Pandora’s Apple CarPlay and Android Auto experiences to make the in-car experience even more engaging and visually dynamic. This will not only expand our presence in the car, but also open up exciting new opportunities for advertisers to connect with listeners while they're on the go. Stay tuned—we’re driving toward a whole new era of in-car streaming. 

Track 5: Giving Listeners The Perfect Gift

This year, we focused on making the Pandora experience even better for our listeners, ensuring it was tailored to their preferences and even re-engaging some lapsed users. Our machine learning team worked on building predictive models to help us make smarter, data-driven decisions for ads. 

We fine-tuned how and when ads were served, based on how sensitive listeners were to brand messages. These models helped us identify the right moments to adjust ad frequency, so listeners weren’t overwhelmed, but still got a balanced experience. The result? Listeners were more receptive to ads when they heard them, and at the same time we kept overall ad capacity steady across the platform.

This was a year of explosive user activity, with more station adds, searches, and thumbs (or likes) than ever before. And we're just getting started. As we approach our 20th anniversary in 2025, even more innovations are on the horizon for advertisers. Ready to ride the Pandora soundwave into the new year? Let’s talk.