Pandora had massive reach but was losing listeners to on-demand competitors. I built the lifecycle marketing infrastructure — email, push, and in-app — that turned passive listeners into active, retained users, driving Pandora from 50 million to over 80 million monthly active users and lifting subscription conversion by 12%.
Pandora had built the largest music streaming audience in the United States, but the shift to on-demand competitors like Spotify and Apple Music was accelerating churn. Listeners signed up but didn't stick — and the company lacked the lifecycle marketing infrastructure needed to activate, retain, and convert them at scale.
Build the lifecycle marketing engine that turns passive listeners into active, retained users — and converts the most engaged into paying subscribers.
We built Pandora's lifecycle marketing function from the ground up, starting with identifying the key activation behaviors that predicted retention, then engineering the first-week listener journey, contextual subscription upsells, and an experimentation culture that optimized every touchpoint.
A lifecycle marketing engine that drove measurable growth in activation, retention, and subscription conversion at massive scale.
What started as a platform with massive reach but no coordinated retention strategy became one of the most sophisticated lifecycle marketing operations in music streaming. By identifying the activation behaviors that mattered, rebuilding the first-week experience, and introducing contextual conversion triggers, we transformed how Pandora engaged its audience.
The experimentation culture we built didn't just produce one-time wins — it created a compounding optimization engine that continued to improve retention, engagement, and conversion long after the initial infrastructure was in place.
Every engagement starts with a conversation. Let's talk about where you are, where you want to go, and how to get there.
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