Pandora's Ad Sales Go Mobile, Like Its Users

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It's a little bit clearer today why Pandora's mobile ad revenue has skyrocketed in the last year. The money appears to be going where the music plays.

The Oakland, CA-based company said that more than 70 percent of user listening now takes place on smart phones, tablets, or other connected devices like Internet-enabled refrigerators. In addition to that statistic, the digital radio brand said of its 150 million registered users, 100 million have listened on a mobile device.

During Pandora Radio's March earnings call covering the 2012 fiscal year, CEO Joseph Kennedy disclosed that at least 42 percent of his company's advertising revenues were mobile ad sales. In a year, he said, mobile ad revenue jumped from $25 million to $100 million, a 300 percent increase.

Based on eMarketer's data, Kennedy said, his company believed that it "achieved more mobile ad revenue last year than any entity other than Google." Pandora's web and mobile ad units include audio, display, and video ads for national and local marketers.

Meanwhile, Pandora released other data today, including:

• one-third of its registered users, 51.2 million, listened via the service in April
• it had 34 million active listeners in April 2011
• listening hours overall increased by 87 percent in April compared to the same month 2011.