Pandora in Your Car?

Looking to take a larger piece of a lucrative pie, Pandora has announced expanded partnerships with automakers on Tuesday. The company stated it now has 100 million registered users, with 36 million that are active monthly.

Founded in 2002, Oakland—Calif. based Pandora lets consumers create their own personal radio stations based on favorite songs, artists and genres. Pandora is a free service to registered users with access to the web, and customers can pay a subscription to bypass commercials.

Seen as a major upcoming competitor to Sirius XM Satellite Radio, the company has increased partnerships with automakers in an attempt to reach more consumers.

"Nearly 50 percent of radio consumption happens in the car, so it's a natural venue for Pandora," said Jessica Steel, Pandora’s executive vice president of business development.

"We want to make the experience as easy in the car as it is at home, at the office, and on a mobile phone," said Steel.

Pandora has been integral behind the trend of automakers designing vehicle media systems to link to aftermarket technologies.

"We're just not able to do their [third party media companies] cycle times, and a lot of research and development is going into this area, so why not partner with the best companies in this field," GM executive Micky Bly said in an interview with Reuters.

Past models have been manufactured with Pandora in mind. Early 2011 GM models have included a MyLink system that allows vehicle media consoles to connect with existing Pandora accounts located on driver’s smartphones.

The new system in Chevy models, which has been developed by GM over the past year, will allow drivers to operate their Pandora accounts from their vehicles, rather than needing external devices, according to Tuesday’s announcement.

Pandora has said its expanding its partnership with Ford Motor Co, and its internet music platform will now be available in 10 new Ford vehicles, as well as 2 Lincoln models.

Although currently offered in select models of the BMW, Mini, Scion and Mercedes-Benz brands, Pandora will also be available in GM’s Buick, Chevrolet, GMC, Hyundai and Toyota vehicles.