Pandora Says, ‘We’re Better Than iTunes Radio’

Pandora’s market share price took a large dive when Apple launched its new iTunes Radio service; but Pandora is still on top. Pandora chief financial officer, Mike Herring, recently stated in an interview that while Apple might have hype and reach on its side, Pandora is still the superior streaming radio service.

Herring acknowledged that Apple and some other streaming music providers are threats to Pandora that should be taken very seriously, but he is also confident that Pandora is “better than anybody else” when it comes to streaming radio services, such as iTunes Radio.

“It’s not that [iTunes Radio] isn’t a threat to Pandora. Don’t get us wrong, we take them very seriously and do see them as a credible threat,” Herring said in the interview. “Keep in mind there have been lots of credible threats over the years, from startups to Microsoft to Google, to Apple and Twitter this year. We absolutely see iTunes as a competitive option out there, but we think we are a great service that does this better than anybody else.”

The chief finance officer continued, “The most recent entrants have all been large, well-funded companies that have agendas outside a really awesome music experience. They have other reasons, selling cell phones or downloads. We sell downloads, but the priority isn’t to sell as many downloads as possible. It’s emblematic of the difference.”

Apple may have the upper hand when it comes to reach (since iTunes Radio was integrated into iOS 7 it was installed on more than 200 million devices after less than a week of availability) but Pandora must be doing something right as the Pandora app is to date, number 3 on the App Store’s top grossing chart (in North America).

[Image via bgr]

SOURCE: http://bgr.com/2013/10/15/pandora-vs-itunes-radio-interview/