Internet music streamer Pandora pointed to rosier revenue numbers in its release of 2015 third quarter finance numbers (ending Sept. 30).
Pandora CEO Brian McAndrews said, “Pandora exited Q3 with strong financial results. In a quarter where a large new entrant came into the music streaming landscape and over a hundred million dollars in combined marketing was spent across the sector to drive awareness of a multitude of offerings, Pandora more than held its own for users and hours growth.”
He pointed to:
• Total RPMs reached a record $60.52, growing 26% year-over-year; Ad RPMs were up 28% year over year to a record $56.84
• Q3 2015 total revenue was $311.6 million, growing 30% year-over-year
• Q3 2015 advertising revenue was $254.7 million, growing 31% year-over-year
• Q3 2015 total mobile revenue was $255.2 million, growing 36% year-over-year
• Q3 2015 local advertising revenue was $63.5 million, growing 52% year-over-year
In addition listener hours were up 3% compared to the same period last year. Active listeners creeped up to 78.1 million versus 76.5 million from the same period last year.
McAndrews also addressed the TicketFly acquisition and a royalty settlement, “Our acquisition of Ticketfly will be truly transformative, extending our long-standing strength in music discovery to the large and fast-growing world of live events. Additionally, with our pre-1972 settlement, we are continuing to strengthen our relationships across the music landscape by resolving an historic source of tension.”
However, digging deeper, other numbers need to be noted. According to the release, Pandora had a net loss of $150,252,000 over the first three quarters of the year which compares to a loss of $42,684,000 for the same period last year.
As referenced above, Pandora has also announced that it has settled one sticky situation — royalties on some pre-1972 recordings.
According to a release, a $90 million agreement was reached withABKCO Music & Records, Capitol Records, Sony Music Entertainment, UMG Recordings and Warner Music Group.