Music-streaming service Pandora has chosen Roger Lynch, chief executive of Sling TV, to be its new CEO and president, after a leadership shakeup in June.
Lynch is the founding CEO of Sling TV, Dish Network‘s online service for live TV that launched in 2015. He will also join Pandora’s board of directors when he starts his new job next month, the company said Monday.
Even though Pandora was a pioneer in internet radio, it continues to struggle against the two top music-streaming services, Spotify and Apple Music. The company finally introduced its own subscription streaming service earlier this year, called Pandora Premium, but based on the company’s most recent earnings, the service did not get as many new subscribers as hoped. Analysts said Pandora Premium added 390,000 paid subscribers in the second quarter, the first full quarter since its launch. Overall, Pandora’s active users fell 2% in the quarter to 76 million, below analysts’ estimates of 77.4 million.
Pandora co-founder Tim Westergren stepped down as CEO earlier this summer. At the same time, two other longtime executives also left: Mike Herring, president and former chief financial officer, and Nick Bartle, chief marketing officer.
The addition of Lynch and board inclusion of Micheal Lynton, who ran Sony Pictures before joining Snap, could signal Pandora is thinking about getting into video in the future.
Naveen Chopra, who’s been acting CEO since June, will continue to be Pandora’s CFO and Lynch will begin his new appointment on September 18, 2017.
