A friend and colleague in our Washington office recently told me about a Web site she uses to listen to music on her computer – Pandora.com. In the short time since she mentioned it in conversation, it’s become my latest music obsession.
For the uninitiated, Pandora.com is a free music site that empowers visitors to choose music they like and then allows users to hear music from similar artists with similar styles (you vote on each song and the system uses the characteristics of each song to find similar ones you might like – over time you “train” the system to play only music that you like). Each channel you set up becomes a radio station that is all your own. It’s a fantastic way to enjoy music you like and to learn about new artists you might not otherwise have heard of. For example, my India.Arie Radio channel led me to a neo-soul group called Hil St. Soul and they now have a channel of their own that I listen to frequently (although probably not as much as my Tina Turner Radio channel, but that’s another story).
So, what, you may ask, does this have to do with gay and lesbian communications? Not much. And that’s my point. We gays and lesbians are consumers too and we use technology, enjoy music, and buy products as much – or more than – our straight counterparts. And until the number of companies reaching out to our community is greater than the number of companies reaching all consumers, there will be companies that are missing the boat on the viable, and valuable, gay and lesbian consumer audience.
I haven’t seen any statistics on numbers of gays and lesbians using music services like Pandora.com, but given our interest in technology and online communication, I’m guessing we’re a fair proportion of the users. As a free service, Pandora.com relies on advertising to support its business. And because registered users must supply basic information such as their names and ages to sign up, Pandora.com has a good start on audience segmenting that can be helpful in targeting specific audiences with specific messages or products. Imagine the impact that advertising specifically focused on our community would have on the site traffic on Pandora.com and the ability of its advertising partners to reach targeted groups. It’s another example of the large, often-unexplored-by-marketers territory that is the gay and lesbian community.
I know that I’ll be considering music sites like Pandora.com as targeted communications vehicles for my gay and lesbian clients (when it makes sense to their business). I can imagine that many smart marketers and consumer products companies might see the logic of such a move – I wonder who will be the first to figure it out and begin targeting gays and lesbians in this way?
What do you think? Any ideas for companies that should begin this kind of outreach? What’s in your Pandora (or similar) playlist? Mine has more than a dozen channels, including Erasure, Pet Shop Boys and Stevie Nicks – hmm…you think Pandora.com has me figured out yet?
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LOVE it! Thanks Ben, I have found my new source in music. It reminds me of my Sirius satellite radio in my car — I can fine tune my music to my mood. What could be more fun? Thanks for turning me on to this new music source…..
I am also a big fan of Pandora and have a variety of stations that reflect ever possible mood and style. I recently figured how to get my computer speakers hooked into my receiver and now am able to listen to music throughout the house. It has also opened the door for finding so many new and wonderful artists and has given my daughter and I an additional outlet for conversation as we talk about the new groups we each discover on our own accounts.