Pandora Reports Q4 And Full Year 2016 Financial Results

Pandora, the world’s most powerful music discovery platform, announced financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2016. “We made significant progress in 2016 by driving leverage in our core business while accelerating subscriptions to our paid product,” said Tim Westergren, founder and CEO of Pandora. “We enter 2017 laser-focused on the growth of our ad-supported business, the launch and growth of our subscription products, and an artist-to-fan platform to drive listener engagement and ticket sales. These three strategic pillars operate in harmony to create mutually reinforcing revenue streams across a large and growing addressable market.”

Fourth Quarter 2016 Financial Results

Revenue: For the fourth quarter of 2016, consolidated total revenue was $392.6 million, a 17% year-over-year increase. Advertising revenue was $313.3 million, a 16% year-over-year increase. Subscription and other revenue was $59.8 million, a 5% year-over-year increase. Ticketing service revenue was $19.4 million, growing approximately 20% year-over-year.1

GAAP Net Loss and Adjusted EBITDA: For the fourth quarter of 2016, GAAP net loss was $90.0 million compared to a net loss of $19.4 million in the same quarter last year, and adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $30.4 million, compared to a profit of $24.8 million in the same quarter last year. For the fourth quarter of 2016, adjusted EBITDA differs from GAAP net loss in that it excludes $34.6 million in expense from stock-based compensation, $17.3 million of depreciation and amortization expense, $7.2 million of other expense and $0.5 million of provision for income taxes.

Average Revenue Per Paid Subscriber (“ARPU”) and Licensing Costs Per Paid Subscriber (“LPU”): For the fourth quarter of 2016, subscription ARPU was $4.73 and subscription LPU was $3.12. Beginning with the fourth quarter of 2016, subscription ARPU and LPU are new metrics that replace subscription RPM and LPM.

Cash and Investments: For the fourth quarter of 2016, the Company ended with $243.3 million in cash and investments, compared to $264.0 million at the end of the prior quarter.

Cash used in operating activities was $2.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2016, compared to $71.0 million of cash used in operating activities in the same period of the prior year. The year-over-year decrease in cash used in operating activities is primarily due to a decrease in payments of content acquisition costs compared to the year ago quarter. Content acquisition costs paid during the quarter decreased year-over-year as a result of the prepayment of such costs during the third quarter of 2016.

Full Year 2016 Financial Results

Revenue: For the full year 2016, total consolidated revenue was $1.385 billion, a 19% year-over-year increase. Advertising revenue was $1.072 billion, a 15% year-over-year increase. Subscription and other revenue was $225.8 million, a 2% year-over-year increase. Ticketing service revenue was $86.6 million, growing approximately 25% year-over-year.1

GAAP Net Loss and Adjusted EBITDA: For the full year 2016, GAAP net loss was $343.0 million compared to a net loss of $169.7 million last year, and adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $119.5 million, compared to a profit of $51.7 million last year. For the full year 2016, adjusted EBITDA differs from GAAP net loss in that it excludes $138.5 million in expense from stock-based compensation, $60.8 million of depreciation and amortization expense, $24.4 million of other expense and $0.2 million of benefit from income taxes.

Other Business Metrics

Listener Hours: Total listener hours grew 0.4% to 5.38 billion for the fourth quarter of 2016, compared to 5.37 billion for the same period of the prior year.

Total listener hours grew 4% to 21.96 billion for the full year 2016, compared to 21.11 billion for the same period of the prior year.

Active Listeners: Active listeners were 81.0 million at the end of the fourth quarter of 2016, compared to 81.1 million for the same period of the prior year.

Subscribers: Subscribers grew 12% to 4.39 million at the end of the fourth quarter of 2016, compared to 3.93 million for the same period of the prior year.

Source: Pandora Radio
Image credit: Pandora – http://press.pandora.com