Celebrate Listener Love Day with Pandora September 9

OAKLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

On Wednesday, September 9, Pandora is celebrating its 10-year anniversary by thanking its listeners with Listener Love Day – a full day of music, with zero ads, sponsored by Pandora One. For 24 hours (12:00am ET, Wednesday, September 9 – 12:00am ET, Thursday, September 10), Pandora will be all music, all day, ad-free.

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"Listener Love Day is a celebration of a decade of connecting music fans to the artists that matter to them," said Tim Westergren, founder, Pandora. "This is a thank you to each and every listener who has tuned in to Pandora over the past 10 years."

Today, Pandora streams more music than any other service in the world based on a simple, enduring focus: to effortlessly connect each listener to the music they love. Almost 80 million listeners tune in each month, logging more than 74 billion listening hours, creating over 8 billion stations and sharing more than 55 billion thumbs over the last decade. This has resulted in the ability to connect fans and artists at an unprecedented scale. With over 200,000 artists now playing to the largest audience in streaming music, listeners are discovering new music on a daily basis – exposing each artist to new fans every day.

The music landscape has evolved significantly since the company was founded in 2005. We have seen the rise of EDM, hip hop's mass market acceptance, alternative feeding top 40 hits and Taylor Swift's move from country to pop. What has not changed, however, is Pandora's unwavering commitment to playing the right music for each and every listener. Our team of 95 musicologists (made up of curators, analysts, playlist engineers and scientists) has come a long way since the original formation of Pandora's Music Genome Project. The first song, Abba's "Dancing Queen," was analyzed with pen and paper, before the attributes (close to 200 at the time) were entered into an Excel grid. Today, what started as one song has led to the team listening to and analyzing more than 57 years of music and cataloging 375 million individual traits, from hand claps to twang and techno robotic.

"From the first song Pandora played in 2005 to the 50 billionth thumb we celebrated earlier this year, our mission has remained the same – to provide each of our listeners with the best music experience possible, whether an old favorite or introducing them to a new artist and style of music," said Tim Westergren. "Listener Love Day is a celebration of not only our listeners, but a day dedicated to great music."

So Much Music – What to Listen To?

Want to make the most of Listener Love Day? You can take a trip back through the past decade of the most thumbed up songs on Pandora with our 10x10 mixtape – the top 10 songs of the past 10 years.

Our team of musicologists has also compiled a list of their favorite stations, for those listeners who want to check out something new:

• Indie Electronic
• Hip Hop BBQ
• Funny Feast Comedy
• Swamp Rock
• Shoegaze Love Songs
• Power Pop
• Hyphy
• 70s Country Rock
• Classic Mambo – Cha Cha Cha y Mas!

Listener Love Day Details

• Who: All Pandora listeners in the US
• What: Ad-free listening – all music, all day
• When: 12:00am ET, Wednesday, September 9 through 12:00am ET, Thursday, September 10

Share the Love – Tell a Friend

Don't keep all this listening to yourself – tell your friends (and let us know what you're listening to) using #ListenerLoveDay on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

ABOUT PANDORA

Pandora P gives people music and comedy they love anytime, anywhere, through connected devices. Personalized stations launch instantly with the input of a single "seed" - a favorite artist, song, or genre. The Music Genome Project^®, a deeply detailed hand-built musical taxonomy, powers the personalization of Pandora^® internet radio by using musicological "DNA" and constant listener feedback to craft personalized stations from a growing collection of more than one million tracks. Tens of millions of people turn on Pandora every day to hear music they love. www.pandora.com | Pandora Blog | Pandora LinkedIn | @PandoraPulse

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