PANDORA GIVES THUMBS UP TO LISTENER DATA

Pandora’s Thumbprint Radio, the radio station that tracks user listening habits and creates custom radio stations, says it now has 20 million listeners nine months after launching. Pandora is hailing it as “the most popular radio station on Earth.”

In a blog entry posted today, Pandora announced multiple significant stats for the service beyond 20m users: More than 5.5b spins; 153k artists heard; and 295m thumbs.

It’s most popular among the 13-24 demographic (7.4m listeners); listeners tune in three times a week for a session of 40 minutes on average; and it skews heavily female—11.2m vs. 8.8m males.

It’s quite likely the curation wars are just getting started, as consumers make their selections from Thumbprint, Spotify’s Discover Weekly and Apple Music’s My New Music Mix. Stay tuned for updates from the battlefield.