Blake Shelton. Live. In Nashville. 11/3. That's right, we said @blakeshelton. RSVP now: pdora.co/2kI3xGX#SoundsLikeCountry
Pandora is stepping up its outreach to country music fans with a new "digital country music festival" campaign that will feature concerts, station takeovers and other exclusive content, all as part of an effort to grow what is already the service's second biggest genre audience and, of course, to attract more paid subscribers.
The campaign, dubbed Fall Into Country, launched on Thursday with targeted ads to existing country music fans touting exclusive content. Blake Shelton is kicking off the "festival" with a concert at OZ Arts Nashville on Nov. 3, followed by events or content featuring Luke Bryan, Kelsea Ballerini and Darius Rucker. Details for Bryan's contribution are being hammered out, but Ballerini's set will involve exclusive content tied to her upcoming album, and Rucker will be taking over popular station.
According to Beville Dunkerley, Pandora's industry relations director in Nashville, the campaign is essentially a packaging of events already in the works for the fall. "It all started with Blake Shelton," Dunkerley told The Tennessean. "His camp actually came to me saying Blake wanted to do something special around his next album release."
The online marketing campaign for Fall Into Country was designed to look like an app for a country music festival. If you're a fan of top artists in the genre, you'll likely see the targeted ads, which will include a link to donate in support of victims of the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas.
The goal, the company said, is to grow its audience of 60 million country fans (second only to hip-hop) for both its ad-supported radio tier and hopefully entice many to become subscribers to one of its paid tiers.
"Country music is really important for Pandora," CEO Roger Lynch told the Tennessean. "We have over 60 million country listeners of all ages. It's also I think a segment that has been under-represented in streaming. So I think it's a big opportunity as things continue to move forward in streaming for us to continue our leadership position in country."
