Report: Pandora's Algorithms Have Helped Increase Listening Hours

Science Behind Listening Hours

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL reports PANDORA "has refined its algorithms significantly over the almost 10 years of its existence, enough to increase listening hours 'measurably'." That's according to PANDORA Chief Scientist and VP/Playlists ERIC BIESCHKE.

The article notes the "increase is tied directly to increased advertising revenues. In the future, PANDORA hopes to be able to detect how many people are in a room listening together, which would also increase ad revenues."

The webcater "collects data about listener preferences from direct signals such as likes and dislikes (thumbs up or down on the application’s interface) and 'skip this song' requests, as well as indirect signals such as whether the application is still running, but users are no longer listening. (PANDORA learns this by displaying a message that simply asks 'are you still listening' if a user hasn’t interacted with the app for a given length of time). It uses these inputs to select songs people will want to stick around for, and listen to."

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