Former head of digital at Fairfax Media Jane Huxley has emerged as ANZ managing director of streaming music publisher Pandora’s new Australian operation, launched this week.

She left Fairfax in June when print and digital roles were merged.

Launch events took place in Auckland, Melbourne and Sydney this week, with Pandora Pandora founder and chief strategy officer Tim Westergren joining Huxley for the tour.

The service offers ‘personalised radio’ including country-specific genre content across a variety of music genres, and new mobile apps for iOS and Android platforms.

Technology allows listeners to ‘thumb up’ the songs they like and ‘thumb down’ those they want to hear less of, while Music Genome Project delivers a detailed taxonomy of more than a million tracks. The company says these have been analysed by a trained musician along musical ‘DNA’ traits, a database which took more than a decade to create.

Most of the more than 100,000 artists are independents.

Westergren says personalised radio is “a wonderful medium” for listeners to enjoy and discover music. “Now we begin the incredibly exciting process of connecting the working musicians in the Pandora catalogue with millions of new listeners.

“What an amazing opportunity,” he says.

Pandora has 175 million registered users in the USA, more than 115 million of which use the smartphone apps.

“Today, more than 75 per cent of listening occurs on mobile, making Pandora a global leader in mobile app downloads, usage and engagement. This is especially important in Australia and New Zealand, which are among the world's most mobile-centric societies,” says Westergren.

Big data operates in the background: Pandora combines the Music Genome Project with listener feedback in the form of over 22 billion 'thumbs' up and down, delivered contextually on individual stations. “Together these form a personalisation engine that combines great predictive capabilities with a steady stream of discovery.”

Jane Huxley has more than 20 years of executive experience in digital media, technology and consumer spaces. “I feel as though I've stumbled upon music's greatest secret and I can't wait for Australians and New Zealanders to enjoy music in the Pandora way,” she says. “The service has certainly changed the way people have consumed and enjoyed music in America for the last 12 years, and I'm looking forward to seeing its adoption here.”

Launch partnerships include a deal to promote Holden’s MyLink infotainment system, with which it is said to be compatible.

Details from www.pandora.com and www.pandora.com/new/au/music (Australia) and www.pandora.com/new/nz/music (New Zealand).