Pandora as a mobile music service isn’t a new notion: usage of the personal radio service has been more than 70% mobile for some time now. CTO Tom Conrad emphasised the point in his SXSW talk yesterday though. “People like to talk about our business as if it’s really complicated, but it’s not really,” said Conrad, according to Billboard. “Don’t talk about how the web is doing or what’s happening with subscriptions. The real story is that Pandora is a mobile phenomenon. People want to take their music with them throughout the day and that’s how the vast majority of our users experience the service.” Conrad said Pandora hopes to relax its new 40-hour monthly listening cap for free mobile users in time, and pooh-poohed concerns that Apple and Google’s upcoming streaming services will threaten Pandora. “There’s a tendency for people to talk as if Pandora has never faced competition before and all of a sudden here comes this new entrant that’s going to take the wind out of our sails,” said Conrad, noting that Pandora’s growth has outdone Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, Imeem, Playlists.com, MySpace and others.
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