Internet radio provider Pandora acquired the growing ticket distributor TicketFly early in October for $450 million in funding and stocks, signaling a market expansion.
The development is significant for several reasons but the main priority of Pandora is to reclaim profits and recover from losses incurred over the course of the past few years with the rise of streaming service Spotify and other competition.
TicketFly is best known in the industry for its affordable pricing at nearby venues, most commonly partnering with BandsInTown, a mobile application for finding concerts, to deliver quality programming to the public.
“It is a smart business opportunity for the company,” said Briana Palencia, sophomore biology major. “If the price is right for their concerts, I will definitely buy from them.”
The Web-based application will make recommendations for upcoming concerts based on a few factors such as location, song preference, related artists and the frequency of a user’s artist or station streaming.
In a recent interview, Brian McAndrew, Pandora’s chief marketing officer, said he wants to bridge the gap in ticket distribution because an average of 40 percent of tickets remain unsold annually.
The acquisition may be a risky step on Pandora’s part, but time will tell how well it pays off for the music streaming business, sale of concert tickets and the listenership on the application.
