Every streaming platform is a walled garden. You get streams; you don't get the listener. We wrote a whole essay about it — playlisting is renting fans.
Pandora is the exception, and almost nobody uses it. Their Artist Marketing Platform (AMP) is free, and one feature in it — Artist Audio Messages — lets you speak to a listener in your own voice and put a tappable button on their screen. And in Pandora's own words, that button can point at “an artist's webpage, or most other destinations.”
So a passive radio listener taps through to a page you control, with your pixel on it. They press play on the preview. They are now in a retargeting audience that belongs to you — and you can reach them again on the next release without paying to find them twice.
That's a stream turning into a fan you keep. From radio. For nothing.
The one rule that gets people rejected — read this before you record anything.
Pandora does not allow the button to link to a competitive streaming service — Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, SoundCloud. But a bundled smart link is explicitly allowed, on one condition:
Your smart link must include Pandora as one of its destinations.
A link page with Spotify and Apple Music but no Pandora button reads as a link to a competitor and will be rejected. Add the Pandora button to your page first. (In git-royal it's in the platform list — just add Pandora as one of your streaming links.)
How to actually do it
Claim your AMP profile
amp.pandora.com and claim your artist profile. It's free and self-serve. You need music live on Pandora — if you're distributed anywhere normal, you already are.Put a Pandora button on your link page
Record 15 seconds — in your own voice
Their recommended structure is intro → the actual message → call to action. Something like:“Hey, it's [name] — you're listening to Pandora. I wrote this next one in a friend's kitchen at 3am and it still sounds like it. Tap the button on your screen to hear the whole thing.”Note the last line. The button is visual, and Pandora is an audio-first platform — the listener may not be looking at their phone. If you don't say “tap the button on your screen”, most of them will never know it's there. Pandora requires the audio to reference the CTA for exactly this reason.
One trap: don't name your own station. Say “thanks for listening on Pandora,” not “thanks for listening to [artist] radio” — your message can play on other artists' stations too.
Create the campaign and attach the button
+ button, top right → Fan Campaign → Create Audio Message. Upload the audio, add your image (at least 500×500), then tick Add a button and paste your smart-link URL.Pick a label from the dropdown — Listen Now, Play Now and Check It Out all fit a link page. Pandora requires that the audio matches the button, so if the button says Buy Tickets, the message had better be about tickets.
Target it (or don't)
If you want, you can restrict it to specific markets: up to 5 of the 210 US DMAs per message. Useful for a tour. Note the limit — this is a US-market tool.
The details that get you rejected
| Length | Under 15 seconds. Not 16. |
| Voice | Recorded by the artist. No music bed behind it. |
| Must say | “You're listening to Pandora…” — a hard requirement. |
| File types | .wav, .aif, .mp3, .mp4 — NOT .wma, .aac or .flac |
| Quality | Uncompressed: 16-bit / 44kHz. Compressed: 128kbps minimum, 320kbps preferred. |
| Loudness | RMS around −17. It has to sit next to real records without jumping out. |
| Image | At least 500×500px, .jpg or .png |
| Approval | Allow 4 days. Your start date must be in the future. |
| How long it runs | New music / new single messages: max 3 months. Others up to a year. |
| Link rules | No competitive streaming services. A smart link IS allowed — if it includes Pandora. |
Pandora tells you the click-through rate
This is the part that separates Pandora from everyone else. Under the Campaigns tab, AMP reports:
- Visited Link (CTR) — clicks divided by visual impressions. An actual click-through rate, on an actual button, from a streaming platform.
- Message Views vs. Message Clicks, graphed over time.
- Unique Listeners, Radio Spins, and Social Listeners (people who came via the share URL).
Spotify will never give you this. Pandora hands it over for free — and then lets you send the click somewhere you own.
Expect the CTR to look low, and don't panic. Pandora is largely a screen-off platform — cars, kitchens, speakers. A visual button on an audio-first service is always going to be tapped by a minority. That's the format, not your message. The ones who do tap are, by definition, paying close attention.
Make the click count
Pandora tells you that someone clicked. It can't tell you who, and it can't help you reach them again. That happens on the page they land on.
If that page is a git-royal smart link, the visit and the preview play fire to your own Meta pixel — browser-side and server-side, so ad blockers can't hide it. That listener enters an audience in your own ad account. Next release, you reach them for pennies instead of finding them from scratch.
The tracking is free on every plan — we don't charge for measurement. Building the audience out of it is Pro.
And to be straight with you: this guide works perfectly well if you use somebody else's link page. Pandora doesn't care whose it is, as long as Pandora's on it. We'd rather you do this than not.
Build the page the button points at — no signup, no card.
Try the editorThe questions people ask
Does Pandora AMP cost anything?+
No. AMP is free and self-serve — Artist Audio Messages, Featured Tracks, curated stations, and the analytics. You need your music live on Pandora, which any normal distributor handles.
Can the button really link to my own smart link?+
Yes — Pandora's own AAM guide says messages can link to “an artist's webpage, or most other destinations,” and explicitly permits bundled smart links (they name Linkfire) PROVIDED the link includes Pandora as one of its destinations. It cannot link to a competitive streaming service on its own.
Why does my link page need a Pandora button on it?+
Because without one it reads as a link to a competing service, and it gets rejected. Add Pandora to your streaming links before you submit. It's a two-minute fix that saves you a four-day approval cycle.
How long can the message be?+
Under 15 seconds, recorded by you, no music bed, and it has to mention Pandora. It also has to reference the button — “tap the button on your screen” — because a lot of listeners have the screen off.
Who hears it?+
Pandora delivers it to the listeners most likely to respond, using their own artist-affinity model. You can also restrict it to up to 5 of the 210 US markets. It's a US tool.
What does Pandora report back?+
Unique Listeners, Radio Spins, Social Listeners, and — uniquely among streaming platforms — Visited Link (CTR): clicks divided by visual impressions, plus Message Views vs Message Clicks over time.
Do I need git-royal for any of this?+
No. The whole thing works with any link page that has Pandora on it. What git-royal adds is what happens after the click: the visit and the preview play fire to your own Meta pixel and TikTok Events API — free on every plan — so the listener becomes someone you can reach again instead of a number in a report.
Specs and rules on this page come from Pandora's published Artist Audio Messages User Guide and the live AMP interface, checked July 2026. Pandora changes things; if a detail here is out of date, tell us and we'll correct it. A stale number is still our responsibility.