Pandora Has A New Way for Artists to Drop Targeted Messages to Fans

Pandora co-founder Tim Westergren recently announced a new feature that will give artists the ability to speak directly to fans on the streaming radio service. “Artist Messaging” will allow artists to record short announcements (similar to artist accounts on Snapchat) about  tour dates, new music or crowd-funding efforts… then submit them to run on playlists based on their music.

Westergren explained that artists can use the Pandora artist management platform (AMP) to create data-driven announcements that can be geo-targeted.

Here is an example how this can work…

“You’re in a band and you decide to stop in Portland tomorrow night to play an impromptu show.” Pull out your smartphone, log into your Pandora AMP account, zoom into Portland and check out your audience there. And then record a 15-second audio sample that says… we’re playing in Portland, we hope to see you there.”

Bloomberg reports that the company signed 10 artists for a pilot program for a goodwill gesture for artists who have taken issue with royalty rates from steaming services.  Lenny Kravitz and Fall Out Boy are reported to be joining the pilot program soon.

Westergren predicted that the revenue generated from posting messages about concerts and merchandise “will dwarf royalties.”

Hopefully this new Pandora artist management platform (AMP) will appeal to the 81.5 million active listeners, benefit artists bottom line, and if all goes well and Pandora fairly shares revenue with artists, they can successfully turn a profit as well.