Anyone who thinks U.S. Hispanics are still confined to traditional Latin media need only check out the latest Pandora stats.
According to ComScore’s June numbers, 25 percent of Pandora’s total 76.4 million active monthly unique visitors (MUV’s) are Hispanic. That translates to an astounding nearly 19 million Hispanic MUV’s, a number that not only places Pandora as the No. 1 music streaming property among Hispanics, but also as the top destination for Hispanics even when compared to endemic Hispanic sites like Univision Digital (which in June had 10.5 million MUVs).
ComScore is not alone in validating Pandora’s Latin popularity. According to Nielsen’s “Hispanics and Music” report released this week, Pandora is the No. 1 streaming service in the country among Latinos, with 39 percent of Hispanics listening in a typical week.
Pandora is not a Spanish site, nor does it advertise to Hispanics. So why the Latin traction?
For one, Pandora has made a concerted effort to broaden its Latin listener base and build up its Latin library. It boasts three separate genre subdivisions for the music — “Latin,” “Mexico” and “Puerto Rico” — with 27 stations under the “Latin” umbrella alone, and 15 stations under the “Mexican” umbrella. That’s more than the number of stations found under dance, metal or even country. The diversity of stations, in turn, reflects Pandora’s ability to target its users.
“The biggest part is we survey our user,” says Mike Reid, Pandora’s executive director for multicultural. “Once we identify this user base as someone who is potentially Hispanic we survey them.”
Those surveys reveal another key driver: Latinos prefer to listen to Pandora via their mobile devices.
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