SXSW - Plus or Minus

I think that SXSW was once a very nice festival to promote new bands and artists to get them in the public eye and media. But now that SXSW has become so massive its hard to get noticed now with all these thousands of acts that are there. Not to mention that the festival seems to be shifting more toward the growing tech world. But for a brand new artist/band, any exposure, especially something as big as SXSW couldn't hurt that bad. And if for some reason you don't have to pay to play there, I think you could only really benefit to gain some new fans here and there.

Pandora CEO Steps Down

Pandora announced Thursday CEO Joe Kennedy will be stepping down after 10 years in charge of the company. Kennedy will stay on until a successor is found.

"As part of our Board discussions of the road that lies ahead, I reached the conclusion and advised the Board that the time is right to begin a process to identify my successor," Kennedy said in a statement. "There is a tremendous market opportunity ahead and I look forward to continuing to work with all the great people at Pandora to keep driving the business forward."

Kennedy joined Pandora in 2004 — four years after the company was founded by Tim Westergren — after having worked at E-Loan and Saturn. Under his leadership, Pandora's user base has grown to more than 67 million monthly active listeners and there are now more than 700 employees on staff. In recent quarters, Pandora's business has been plagued by high royalty costs and low ad revenue for the growing number of mobile listeners. The online radio service has also been threatened by competitors such as Spotify as well as rumors that Apple might enter the music streaming space.

Kennedy's announcement came after Pandora reported better-than-expected fourth quarter earnings on Thursday, but mounting losses. Pandora reported a non-GAAP loss of $0.04 per share, up from $0.03 a share during the same quarter a year earlier.

Pandora's stock shot up nearly 20% in after-hours trading following the news.