Pandora announces – $1.39bn revenues and a $343m net loss in 2016

Pandora has announced its financial results for the final quarter of 2016, as well as the full year. The service reported $392.6m revenues in Q4 2016, up 17% year-on-year. However, its net loss increased from $19.4m to $90m over the same period. Active listeners fell slightly from 81.1 million to 81 million, while total listener hours grew by 0.4% to 5.38bn.

For the full year of 2016, Pandora’s revenues were $1.39bn, up 19% on 2015. However, its net loss increased from $169.7m in 2015 to $343m in 2016. It was a billion-dollar advertising year for Pandora, thanks to $1.07bn of ad revenues compared to $225.8m of subscriptions income.

Pandora relaunched its mid-tier subscription offering in September, and saw its subscriber total grow by 12% year-on-year to 4.4 million by the end of the year as a result.

The company also saw its ticketing service revenues grow by 20% year-on-year to $19.4m in the final quarter of 2016, with its Ticketfly subsidiary generating $86.6m for the full year.

The financials break down Pandora’s main costs in the final quarter of 2016. Out of the $392.6m in revenues, $212.1m went on content acquisition costs – royalties – with $133.5m spent on sales and marketing, $38.3m on product development, and $46.9m on general and administrative costs.