Tim Westergren's Net Worth as of 2024
$22 Million
Timothy Brooks Westergren was born on 21 December 1965, in Minneapolis, Minnesota USA, and is an entrepreneur, composer and record producer, probably best known as a co-founder of Pandora Radio.
So just how wealthy is Tim Westergren at present? According to sources in mid-2016, Westergren has established a net worth of over $22 million, the main source being his involvement in Pandora, during a career which began in the late 1980s.
Tim Westergren Net Worth $22 Million
Westergren attended Cranbrook Schools in Michigan, and later enrolled in Stanford University, earning his Bachelor of Arts degree in computer acoustics and recording technology. After graduating, he pursued a career in the music industry, eventually establishing himself as an independent musician, composer and record producer, playing the piano, drums, bassoon, and clarinet, with musical background in rock, jazz and blues. He also managed other artists with independent labels, scored feature films and held a number of live performances.
However, for many years Westergren struggled with finding a significant funding base. This changed in 2000, when he got the idea of codify a genomic approach to musical styles known as the Music Genome Project, that would identify ‘genetically’ related music among nearly 2000 items identified by the experts of Pandora to help the listener find similar songs based on a small musical sampling. Along with friends Will Glaser and Jon Kraft, he founded Pandora Media Inc. in Oakland, California, to market their patent. They launched the popular playlist engine known as Pandora and eventually started a personalized online radio service called Pandora Radio, a free radio database categorizing playlists powered by the Music Genome Project. The music recommendation service focused on enabling the users to select their preferred music based on the Music Genome Project. The company faced serious financial problems at the beginning, which included owing over $1.5 million in back salaries to its fifty employees. However, by pursuing a transitional strategy of technology licensing to third parties, the business grew and Pandora Radio eventually evolved into a successful Internet radio service, with new additional features constantly being added to its platform.
Changing its service from only paid to ad-based direct-to-consumer, Pandora became available for free users. The company went public in 2011; the same year their annual revenue was reported to be $138 million. Today, Pandora holds over 125 million registered users and is the second most downloaded free iPhone application. It controls 78% of Internet radio, with a 9.3% share of the USA public radio. Westergren has held several positions in the company since its launch, initially as the Chief Creative Officer and Treasurer from 2000 to 2002, then CEO and President from 2002 to 2004, and as the Chief Strategy Officer from 2004 to 2014. In 2016 he became the company’s Chief Executive Officer again, replacing Brian McAndrews. His involvement in the company has enabled him to establish an credible net worth, and to earn several awards and honors, such as two Music Business Program Visionary Awards by New York University’s Steinhardt School. In 2010 he was listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine.
When it comes to his private life, Westergren is married to Smita Singh, former founding director of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Global Development Program.
