OAKLAND, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 02/01/10 -- Building on its strategy to capitalize upon revenue growth opportunities by expanding into new markets, Pandora (www.pandora.com), the personalized internet radio service, today announced a new initiative aimed at the small-to-medium-sized business market offering them the powerful advertising tools their larger counterparts already enjoy.

Pandora is leading an explosive evolution in the internet radio era by creating a multi-platform presence that is rapidly expanding from the web to mobile to consumer devices and soon to automobiles for all advertisers. Now small-to-medium-sized businesses will have ready access to Pandora's highly-engaged and responsive audience through a dedicated sales team and a convenient ad platform that automates ad creation and serving.

Pandora's new SMB ad sales team, comprised of a group of experienced salespeople, is based at Pandora's Oakland, CA, headquarters under the direction of vice president of performance ad sales, Brian Mikalis.

"As we grow our user base, it makes sense to identify ways to scale our business and provide access for every size advertiser, from the biggest brands to the specialty and neighborhood shops who want to get their marketing messages out to their best prospects," said John Trimble, chief revenue officer for Pandora. "Now we are able to offer broader, multi-platform marketing solutions with deep targeting and campaign optimization to businesses that previously didn't have an affordable advertising solution."

By partnering with AdReady, a pioneering technology company that makes display advertising accessible to advertisers of any size, Pandora's new sales team will be able to develop creative assets, traffic and manage campaigns for clients that it previously could not cost effectively service. Now marketers of all sizes such as bands, summer festivals, and local colleges, will be able to leverage the effectiveness and reach of targeted display ad campaigns across Pandora's growing audience.

"In this current climate of immediate accessibility, the team at Pandora steps it up and delivers what you want, when you need it," said Kathleen Pittman, president of Green Bottle Media LLC, a full-service media planning and buying service. "With virtually no turn-around time at all, the folks at Pandora were able to present multiple, well-thought-out solutions for a multi-market, regional client -- a popular chain of burrito eateries in Texas, implement the plan seamlessly, and report promptly back to us."

According to Pittman, the results of the campaign on Pandora generated more than three times the click through rate than any other online placement for Green Bottle Media's fourth quarter 2009 campaign for this client.

"Pandora is transforming the way people access and listen to music. Advertisers that have usually been relegated to buying traditional advertising can now be a part of that revolution," said Aaron Finn, founder and chief strategy officer of AdReady.

About Pandora

Pandora (www.pandora.com) is the personalized internet radio service available through personal computers, mobile phones, and a wide array of consumer electronic devices. With 45 million US listeners, 16 million of which use Pandora off the PC, Pandora is the world's largest internet radio service. By simply entering a favorite artist or song, listeners can instantly enjoy a personalized station based on Pandora's Music Genome Project™. For more than ten years, Pandora's team of professional musician analysts have been building the world's most comprehensive and intricate musicological database, manually analyzing over 700,000 songs across up to 400 distinct musical attributes per song. This musical 'DNA,' representing every dimension of timbre, melody, harmony, and rhythm, captures each song's unique musical identity, and enables Pandora to quickly and easily create relevant playlists, full of discovery. 70% of the collection, which includes everything from early Baroque music to the latest hip hop, consists of tracks from independent artists and labels. Real time 'thumbs up' and 'thumbs down' feedback allows listeners to further refine their stations, which are stored and universally available through their account. More than 2 million new listeners join Pandora every month, including over 600,000 on mobile and CE devices.

About AdReady

Seattle-based AdReady is an innovative advertising technology company making online display advertising as accessible and effective as search advertising. The company's unique approach helps businesses of all sizes build powerful online display campaigns based on proven creative and media plans, dramatically increasing an advertiser's return on advertising spend. AdReady's patent-pending solutions are ideal for advertisers, agencies and publishers.