Pandora yesterday agreed to pay out a $90m to major labels and ABKCO over pre-1972 recordings.
It appears to have done some notable damage to the digital radio firm’s share price.
The news has combined with the company slightly missing its revenue estimates in its Q3 results to displease investors, with Pandora’s share price falling 20.27% after hours to $15.41.
The firm posted $311.6m in revenues for the three months to end of September. That was up 30.1% on the same period in 2014, but missed forecasts by $1.37m.
It paid out $211.3m of this revenue in ‘content acquisition costs’ in Q3 2015, up almost double from the $111.3m it passed music rights-holders a year prior.
Pandora net loss in Q3 this year stood at a whopping $89.5m.
And in the first three quarters of 2015, Pandora’s combined losses stand at $150.3m.
The firm’s income guidance for its Q4 was announced as $325m-$330m, below a $351.9m Wall Street consensus, with no explanation provided.
Active listeners fell to 78.1m at the end of Q3, up from 76.5m a year before but down from 79.4m at the end of Q2.
Interestingly, subscription/other revenue rose 26% year-on-year to $56.9m, making up 18.3% of total income.
Q3 listener hours totalled 5.14 billion, up 3% year-on-year but down 3% quarter-on-quarter.
Ad revenue +31% Y/Y to $254.7M, with local ad sales rising 52% to $63.5M.Music Business Worldwide
