On June 11, 2013, Pandora announced it would purchase FM radio station KXMZ in Rapid City, South Dakota.

On September 24, 2018, Sirius XM Holdings announced its intent to acquire Pandora for $3.5 billion. In September 2017, Roger Lynch became CEO Lynch stated that he wanted to expand the service's focus on podcasts, with similar discovery features to those for music, as well as new monetization options. On July 31, 2017, Pandora discontinued services in Australia and New Zealand, citing a need to focus solely on the U.S. In early 2017, Pandora revealed that 56 million of its 81 million active users subscribe to the Today's Country station and that country music accounted for more than 1.7 billion listening hours on the platform in 2016. By January 2015, songs played on Pandora had received more than 50 billion thumbs up from users. They also redesigned the thumbs up/down feature to allow the listener to undo their action. At around the same time, a new feature was introduced to give users the ability to receive notices about their favorite artists through the music player. On April 16, 2015, song samples were officially removed. In early 2015, Pandora removed lyrics from song pages but returned them by July. In December 2013, iTunes was described as Pandora's 'biggest existential threat'. On September 1, 2013, Pandora removed a 40-hour-per-month limitation for free mobile listening. By December 2013, Pandora was noted as accounting for 70 percent of all Internet radio listening in the United States. In April 2013, Pandora announced that their radio streaming service had passed 200 million users, about 70 million of whom were active monthly. Kennedy announced that he would leave the company after nine years. On March 7, 2013, Pandora chairman and chief executive Joseph J. In 2011, Pandora launched its IPO on the NYSE and is listed as 'P'.

The website began as a paid service but quickly changed to an advertising service to make it also available free for users. In 2004, the company returned to its initial vision of producing customized radio stations and changed its name to Pandora Media. Initially, the company pursued a transitional strategy of technology licensing to third parties including AOL, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, and Tower Records. Founder Tim Westergren then convinced Pandora's 50 employees of the company to work for two years without pay. The company quickly ran through its initial $2 million in funding, running out of money by 2001. The idea was to create a separate, individualized radio station for each user, with music that the user prefers and without music that they do not prefer. began as Savage Beast Technologies, and was founded by Will Glaser, Jon Kraft and Tim Westergren.

Pandora download music free to play