The Spectacular Existential Crisis of Pandora

By the time Roger Lynch took over as the company’s fourth CEO in four years, the chances of rising from the ashes were slim. “Everyone wants to feel like they’re on a winning team, and employees really loved the company but felt like it was losing,” Lynch tells Rolling Stonenow, almost exactly one year after he took charge of the slipping business. But Pandora has actually weathered that year well — and, to the surprise of many, even came out a bit stronger at the other end. Headlines lit up the company once more last month, but with a very different sheen: Satellite radio giant SiriusXM announced its intent to buy Pandora in a $3.5 billion all-stock deal, which will soon create the biggest audio entertainment company in the world. Under new parents and an aggressively remixed business model, Pandora is determined to be relevant again — if, that is, music fans are willing to take it back.