Leiweke To Join Pandora Board

Leiweke’s election is effective immediately, while Faxon’s election will take place at Pandora’s June 4 shareholders meeting.

The moves seem intended to shore up Pandora’s standing in the traditional music business: Leiweke and presumably Faxon will take seats formerly held by investors.

Leiweke could arguably be considered more of a sports and real estate guy. But with his previous job heading Anschutz Entertainment Group – which he left abruptly in 2013, landing at MLSE – he has standing in the music world.

Pandora, like Spotify, is currently fending off music industry criticism of its royalty rates and opposes industry-backed legal attempts to increase them. For its part, Pandora has lately been attempting to patch things up with promotional partnerships and data-sharing with artists, according to the New York Times.

With Leiweke in and Faxon’s election a foregone conclusion, Pandora chairman and CEO Brian McAndrews didn’t wait for the formal seating to issue a statement hailing the choices.

“I could not be more excited for Roger and Tim to join the board. Both are forward-thinking and bring invaluable expertise to help Pandora play a leading role in the evolution of the music industry,” he said. “Roger’s deep knowledge of the music business and Tim’s experience in entertainment will provide unique insights as we continue to deliver music our listeners love and new tools to help music makers thrive.”