Pandora Music Revenue and Usage Statistics (2024)

David Curry

Updated: February 21, 2024

In today’s world, music streaming is the prevailing way to listen to music. It accounts for 85 percent of the music industry revenue, with Spotify and Apple Music leading the way.

But 20 years ago, the music industry was in a far different position. Physical sales accounted for the vast majority of revenue and music labels controlled the distribution model.

The iPod and Napster would change the course of history in 2001, as millions of people found new ways to own music, either through £1 single purchases or illegal torrents.

In a small apartment in San Francisco, Tim Westergren and Jon Kraft were also attempting to use infuse the music industry with technology. They had assembled a team of engineers and musicians to build a recommender system for music, called the Music Genome Project, which would “capture music at its most fundamental level” through over 450 attributes to describe a song.

Even though the system worked, Pandora (originally called Savage Beast Technologies) spent four years attempting to license the technology to AOL, Best Buy and the music industry. Nobody wanted anything to do with it, so in 2005, Pandora launched its own discovery service on the web.

The original concept of Pandora has stuck with it, a discovery tool for new music, alongside stations that are tailored to a user’s interests. Some things have changed, Pandora now uses artificial intelligence to instead of musicians to categorise the songs.

Pandora was the first online service to make personalisation a key part of the experience, which has been imitated by Spotify and Apple Music. Most music operators at the time either offered a library without any recommendations or basic radio channels.

Five years after launch, Pandora reached 40 million monthly active users. The launch of the iPhone and Bluetooth car radios accelerated the company’s growth, and Pandora quickly adapted its application for all platforms.

However, as with most streaming services, is struggled to make a profit. Until 2019, Pandora had not made a profit and even inside SiriusXM, it continued to struggle, although it has seen improvement in the past few years.

This was partly due to Pandora’s slow shift from advertising to subscriptions, which Spotify and Apple Music capitalised on.

Pandora has since launched Stories, a marketing tool similar to Genius’ Behind the Lyrics, in which artists can give narrative and deeper insights into tracks. It also added podcasting, which looks to be the next battleground for all of the key music streaming services.

We have collected data and statistics on Pandora Music. Read on below to find out more.

Pandora key statistics

  • Pandora Music generated $2.1 billion revenue in 2023, with revenue growth almost flat on the previous year
  • SiriusXM has reported four straight years of gross profit for Pandora, after a decade of annual losses
  • Pandora had 46 million monthly active listeners in 2023; this has been steadily falling since 2016
  • It also had six million paid subscribers in 2023, a small decline on the 6.2 million in 2022

Pandora overview

Title 1Title 2
Launch dateNovember 2004
HQOakland, California
PeopleRoger Lynch (CEO), Aimée Lapic (CMO), David Gerbitz (COO), Chris Phillips (CPO)
Business typeSubsidiary
Parent companySiriusXM Holdings
IndustryMusic streaming

Pandora revenue

Pandora’s revenue increased by 0.7% in 2023. Revenue growth has been stagnant since 2021.

Pandora annual revenue 2011 to 2023 ($bn)

YearRevenue ($bn)
20110.26
20120.41
20130.63
20140.91
20151.16
20161.38
20171.46
20181.56
20191.72
20201.69
20212.07
20222.09
20232.11

Sources: Music App Report, Company data

Pandora profit

SiriusXM posted $638 million gross profit for Pandora in 2023, its third year of annual profit.

Pandora annual gross profit/loss 2010 to 2023 ($mm)

YearGross profit/loss ($mm)
2010-1.8
2011-16
2012-38
2013-27
2014-30
2015-169
2016-342
2017-518
2018-333
2019-938
2020571
2021743
2022655
2023638

Sources: Company data

Pandora users

Pandora had 46 million active listeners in 2023, an 8% decrease on 2022 figures.

Pandora annual listeners 2009 to 2023 (mm)

YearUsers (mm)
200920
201042
201148
201254
201365
201481
201578
201681
201774
201869
201963
202058
202152
202250
202346

Sources: Music App Report, Company data

Pandora subscribers

Pandora has six million active subscribers, who pay for the app’s premium service with no adverts.

Pandora annual subscribers 2014 to 2023 (mm)

YearSubscribers (mm)
20143.3
20153.8
20163.9
20174.8
20185.6
20196.2
20206.3
20216.3
20226.2
20236

Sources: Music App Report, Company data,

Pandora annual music streams

SiriusXM reported 10.4 billion annual music streams in 2023, its fifth straight year of decline

Pandora annual music streams 2008 to 2023 (bn)

YearHours listened (bn)
20080.9
20091.8
20103.8
20118.2
201214
201315
201420
201521
201622
201720
202012.5
202111.5
202210.9
202310.4

Note: Figures after 2020 are ad-supported listening hours. Source: Statista 

Pandora FAQ

How many stations have been created on Pandora?

Over 10 billions stations have been created by users and moderators

What is Pandora’s peak yearly streams?

Pandora’s peak yearly stream volume is 418 billion, which it hit in 2015

How long does the average user listen to Pandora per day?

The average Pandora user listens for two hours, 15 minutes per day

What is Pandora’s largest acquisition?

Pandora acquired Ticketfly in 2015 for $450 million. This was sold two years later to Eventbrite for $200 million

How long does it take an artist to make a dollar on Pandora?

It takes an artist 752 streams to earn a dollar, more than Apple Music, Deezer and Spotify (Visual Capitalist)

What is Pandora’s largest demographic?

Pandora’s largest age demographic is 25 to 34 year olds, followed by 18 to 24 (Statista)

What was the most popular track of the 2010’s on Pandora?

Earned It by The Weeknd was the most popular track of the decade, followed by Someone Like You by Adele and See You Again by Wiz Khalifa (ft. Charlie Puth) (Hello Giggles)

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