UPDATE: Pandora has sent emails to its users in Australia and New Zealand advising them the service will end July 31. Paid subscriptions will be cancelled on this date and any extra value will be refunded to the user's account. If you were subscribed via a gift card payment, you'll need to organise a refund via the retailer you purchased the gift card from.
Music streaming service Pandora will be shutting down its operations in its only two international markets — Australia and New Zealand — in order to focus on its operations in the US.
The news comes via a report from Billboard, to whom a representative of the service stated that operations would wind down over the next few weeks so that the company can “remain laser-focused on the expansion of [its] core business in the Unites States”.
Pandora’s co-founder, Tim Westergreen, recently announced he was stepping down as CEO as part of this refocusing, along with the departure of the company's chief marketing officer and president. The business had also made a number of larger financial moves in recent weeks, such as selling off its TicketFly brand and securing investment from SirusXM.
While not in a leading position against other music streaming services in the Australia and New Zealand markets, Pandora is still one of the current major players and as of February 2017 apparently had around 4.5 million paid subscribers and 81 million active users. Further to this, the company had partnerships with some of the region’s larger businesses such as Optus, Woolworths and Rolling Stone.
The outcome for current subscribers and whether or not they will be reimbursed for any subscriptions they currently hold is unclear, as is the future of the ANZ region employees which number around 100.
- If you’ve been displaced by this shift, check out which music streaming service is best for you here (but just ignore the Pandora bit if you’re not in the States).
