San Francisco - Social music discovery service Pandora has laid off 20 employees, or 14% of its staff, company founder Tim Westergren announced in a blog post this week.

"Like virtually every company, Pandora is not immune to the challenges presented by the current economic turmoil. We are trying to react quickly and responsibly to the new environment," Westergren wrote.

"There are tough times ahead for the economy, but our listenership is growing rapidly, the Internet radio royalty rate resolution seems finally near, and the explosion of mobile devices like the iPhone are opening up a world of opportunity for internet radio to expand off the desktop," Westergren continued.

"Moreover, our ad sales are growing so well that, not only did we not make any reductions there, we need to continue to hire more."

Related Links:
http://blog.pandora.com/pandora/archives/2008/10/a_sad_day.html