A Spotify-style Facebook integration is not on the roadmap for Pandora—and may never be—according to founder Tim Westergren. Instead, the company is pushing a strategy that prioritizes Pandora's homegrown social networking tools, while still enabling some push updates and connectivity options through Facebook, Twitter, and email. “We're going to watch how [those tools are] embraced and what listeners tell us and that will sort of dictate how do we evolve it over time," Westergren recently told Forbes.
And, that's not right now. “Since Spotify isn't seen (or at least acknowledged) as a threat, Westergren says he hasn't felt pressure to integrate Pandora with Facebook or other social platforms in order to keep it competitive," relayed Forbes journalist Jeff Bercovici. “Instead, it's pushing its own suite of social features."
That wait-and-see gives a huge theoretical head-start to Spotify, whose front-of-the-line Facebook handshake is just getting started. Currently, Spotify listening habits are being saturated throughout Facebook, with endless feedback loops the natural result.
But Westergren doesn't seem alarmed. Quite the contrary: the guy who brought personalized radio to the doorstep of the mainstream sees fundamental differences that favor Pandora. “Fundamentally an on-demand service is complementary to radio," Westergren said, while further estimating that 80 percent of music listening is non-interactive, radio-style listening, with 20 percent on-demand. “I don't [see that changing] in really a substantial way."
But what are these Pandora networking tools, anyway? As part of its HTML5-based facelift a few months ago, Pandora introduced a number of sharing and profile capabilities. That's available to a community of more than 100 million, though the question now is whether the world is too obsessed with their Facebook profiles to notice—or, at least engage in a serious way.
And, that's not right now. “Since Spotify isn't seen (or at least acknowledged) as a threat, Westergren says he hasn't felt pressure to integrate Pandora with Facebook or other social platforms in order to keep it competitive," relayed Forbes journalist Jeff Bercovici. “Instead, it's pushing its own suite of social features."
That wait-and-see gives a huge theoretical head-start to Spotify, whose front-of-the-line Facebook handshake is just getting started. Currently, Spotify listening habits are being saturated throughout Facebook, with endless feedback loops the natural result.
But Westergren doesn't seem alarmed. Quite the contrary: the guy who brought personalized radio to the doorstep of the mainstream sees fundamental differences that favor Pandora. “Fundamentally an on-demand service is complementary to radio," Westergren said, while further estimating that 80 percent of music listening is non-interactive, radio-style listening, with 20 percent on-demand. “I don't [see that changing] in really a substantial way."
But what are these Pandora networking tools, anyway? As part of its HTML5-based facelift a few months ago, Pandora introduced a number of sharing and profile capabilities. That's available to a community of more than 100 million, though the question now is whether the world is too obsessed with their Facebook profiles to notice—or, at least engage in a serious way.
