Pandora Ties Music Choices to Political Preferences for Ad Targeting

Through a new ad service pioneered by Pandora, the online music platform, subscribers' musical preferences will be cross-referenced with their zip codes in order to permit political advertisers - and anyone else who think it might help their business - target specific audiences.

The presumption is that listening to certain kinds of music is an indication of political views. And no, Pandora customers are not able to opt out. Yet.

The significance of Big Data is based on precisely such finely honed analyses of consumer likes and dislikes. It gives advertisers the ability to more efficiently identify those who are most likely to purchase whatever it is they are selling, whether it be soap or those who shout from soap boxes. As the following article explains, Pandora claims that its predictions based on this interpretation is between 75 and 80 percent accurate.

The question now is whether those who learn that whatever tune they choose potentially identifies them to advertisers will be sufficiently creeped out or infuriated that they end their subscription. It is conceivable, after all, that once a prospective politician is elected, this sort of information can be used to target them in other ways. While this may seem far-fetched (or not) in the US or western Europe, there are places in the world where that may not be such a stretch.

The larger point is that advertisers and consumer/citizens are in a co-evolutionary race to see whether the former's attempts to use every data point accessible to sell them stuff is outweighed by the public's revulsion at being so closely and involuntarily tracked. A year ago, such concerns were the stuff of cranks and scolds. Now there is a more general and free-floating anxiety which may serve to imposed limits on what can or can not be uses or, at the very least, whether those providing the data can choose to maintain some shreds of private personal choice. JL

Elizabeth Dwoskin reports in the Wall Street Journal:

Next time you listen to a Bob Marley channel on Pandora Media Inc.,  P in Your Value Your Change Short position the Internet radio service may peg you as likely to vote for a Democrat.

The Oakland, Calif., company plans to roll out a new advertising service next week that would enable candidates and political organizations to target the majority of its 73 million active monthly Pandora listeners based on its sense of their political leanings.

How can it do this? The company matches election results with subscribers' musical preferences by ZIP Code. Then, it labels individual users based on their musical tastes and whether those artists are more frequently listened to in Democratic or Republican areas. Users don't divulge their political affiliations when they sign up for Pandora.

Pandora's effort to pinpoint voter preferences highlights how digital media companies are finding new ways to tap information that users share freely to target advertising. These go beyond the traditional tracking of Web-browsing habits. Pandora, locked in a battle for advertising revenue with Internet radio services such as Spotify, sees political advertising as a way to boost revenue.

Facebook Inc. FB in Your Value Your Change Short position is considered the pioneer in compiling information that users share to create demographic profiles for online advertisers. During the 2008 election, Facebook began allowing political firms to target users by mining clues to their interests and their location.

Before the 2011 Iowa Straw Poll, for example, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R., Minn.) advertised to Facebook users who had identified themselves as Tea Party supporters or Christian rock fans, or who had posted messages in favor of tax cuts.

"Targeting users is basically the currency in data right now," says Jack Krawczyk, Pandora's director of product management. He says companies like Pandora and Facebook, which know users' names, and can track their media consumption or stated preferences across computers, tablets and phones, have an advantage over companies relying on Web browsing cookies.

In November, Pandora allowed advertisers to target users who listened to salsa, or Spanish-language music and live in ZIP Codes with many Hispanic residents. It plans to tease out more demographic groups in coming months. "We can infer parenting," Mr. Krawczyk said. "If you're registered as a female in your thirties and have a children's music station."

Users of Pandora's free service cannot opt out of politically targeted ads, though they can opt out of cookie-based ads. Pandora offers an ad-free premium service for $3.99 a month.

Pandora's inferences start with a user's ZIP Code, supplied at registration. Pandora then reviews election results for that county, Mr. Krawczyk said. So if 80% of citizens in a certain county voted for President Obama in 2012, Pandora assumes that 80% of people in the ZIP Codes in that county "lean Democrat." If the county voted twice for Obama, the algorithm pegs users in those ZIP Codes as likely to be "strong Democrats."

Pandora has allowed political advertisers to target users based on their ZIP Code since 2011. Now, it is adding information about users' musical tastes and other attributes in the hope of creating a more valuable profile.

Do political leanings correlate with music preferences? Mr. Krawczyk said he believes Pandora's predictions are between 75% and 80% accurate, but the "true test" will be how the ads perform. Pandora uses county election results in assembling its profiles because it has found they are better predictors than more-local results.

Of course, some of the analysis seems simplistic. Pandora users who listen to country music more often live in Republican areas, while fans of jazz, reggae and electronic music are more commonly found in counties favoring Democrats, the company said. R&B listeners lean slightly to Democrats and Gospel and New Age listeners lean slightly to Republicans, Pandora said. Classic rockers like Bruce Springsteen and Hip Hop artists are harder to classify; they count fans in both parties.

Generally, the preferences are distinct enough to appeal to advertisers. "There are very few places where people listen to a combination of country music and jazz," Mr. Krawczyk said.

Pandora has signed up two political-ad firms, Precision Network and Bully Pulpit Interactive, which ran digital media for Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D., Mass.) campaign and for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.