Why I'm Nervous About Pandora's Future

By Tim Beyers – Dec 8, 2012 at 3:31PM

NYSE: P

Pandora Media, Inc.

Spontaneous radio isn't as attractive as it used to be.

What a wonderfully awful time it is to be in the radio business -- a business so bad that disruptors are being disrupted at an astounding pace.

Consider Pandora Media (P), the streaming radio service whose raison d'etre is to introduce you music you might like. The stock briefly fell 15% this week after reporting disappointing guidance. My Motley Fool Rule Breakers teammate Rick Munarriz did the math and found that far too few are paying for a Pandora subscription.

Why are we surprised by this? Pandora isn't dealing in original programming the way that Sirius XM Radio (SIRI 0.98%) is. Meanwhile, on-demand audio is also better than it's ever been thanks to podcasts. Find out more about how and why this format is gaining popularity in the video below.

Fool contributor Tim Beyers is a member of the Motley Fool Rule Breakers stock-picking team and the Motley Fool Supernova Odyssey I mission. He owned shares of Apple and Netflix at the time of publication. He also had a long-term call options position in Netflix. Check out Tim's web home and portfolio holdings or connect with him on Google+, Tumblr, or Twitter, where he goes by @milehighfool. You can also get his insights delivered directly to your RSS reader.

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