Christian P. Pewitt Blogs: Pandora Reports No User Growth, But Q2 Revenue Grew More Than Expected

Monday, July 31, 2017

Pandora Reports No User Growth, But Q2 Revenue Grew More Than Expected

Pandora shared its Q2 report on Monday, and even though music streaming is exploding globally, this streamer's active user numbers remained flat at 76 million. Wall Street applauded, however, since the company reported better than expected returns and signs of growth in revenue, paid subscriptions and average monthly listener days.

Key Pandora Q2 User Base Metrics:

Total monthly active users = 76M (reported last quarter = 76M)
Total paid subscribers (across Pandora Plus & Premium) = 4.86 million / 24% YoY increase
Listeners tuning in an average 26 days per quarter / approx 23 hours per month
Continues to rank #1 as highest trafficked mobile brand over Spotify, SoundCloud and YouTube (comScore, June ’17)

Key Financial Metrics:

Q2 revenue was $376.8 million / 10% YoY increase – above the high end of our guidance range of $360 million to $375 million
Adjusted EBITDA loss was $54.3 million – above the midpoint of our guidance range of $65 million to $50 million
Q2 ad revenue was $278.2 million / 5% YoY increase (local ad revenue made up more than 30% of this)
Q2 subscription revenue was $68.9 million / 25% YoY increase

"We have taken a number of steps to hone the company’s strategy and position Pandora to continue to build audience and extend monetization through a combination of advertising and subscription revenue streams. In addition to exceeding our revenue expectations this quarter, we also announced several important strategic moves including a $480 million investment from Sirius XM, the sale of Ticketfly, and changes to our board and management team," said Naveen Chopra, CFO and interim CEO of Pandora. "We remain laser-focused on execution that attracts listeners and investments that drive the growth and monetization of our audience."

Read the full report here.