Streaming radio platform Pandora just released its second quarter earnings, and they largely beat the street’s expectations. Total revenue increased 58 percent year over year to $162 million. The company reported non-GAAP EPS of $0.04. Analysts expected revenue of $156 million and non-GAAP earnings of $0.02 per share. On both count, Pandora managed to beat those numbers. Now 71.2 million users strong, the company reported 3.88 billion of listening hours over the quarter, representing a 18 percent year-over-year increase. Yet, Pandora reported 4.18 billion listening hours last quarter. Even though revenue is increasing, people are listening less to Pandora. Pandora is careful with its Q3 estimates as it expects between $174 million and $179 million in revenue with non-GAAP earnings per share between $0.03 and $0.06. Yet, the big elephant in the room is iTunes Radio. Over the past seven days, most analysts expected Pandora to report stronger revenue and profit than expected. It was indeed the case but this second quarter represents the last quarter before the introduction of iTunes Radio. As the company notes, $116 million out of its $162 million reported revenue comes from its mobiles apps, or 71.6 percent. iOS is one of the two major platforms for Pandora, and it will now have a very similar product offering in the ‘Music’ apps. Apple will release iTunes Radio in iOS 7, which is supposed to be released shortly after the rumored September 10 press event. It will be available on in iTunes for Mac and Windows as well. The company is still focused on mobile revenue as it increased 92 percent year over year. It remains to be seen whether the company will be able to hold the same trend in the coming quarters as more players are providing a customized radio experience. During the past three months, Pandora got involved in heated debates over royalties. Many artists accused the streaming company of not paying enough royalties to music companies. The company had to defend its stance. Even during this quarter, most of the profit was spent on music royalties. Shortly after the earnings release, shares were down 10 percent in after-hours trading. They are now trading down 3.5 percent. Developing…
Reported by TechCrunch 16 hours ago.
↧