Listen: Pandora reports record ad revenue, 3B hours of music consumed in Q1

Pandora gave investors something nice to listen to for its fiscal Q1 earnings report: record increases in revenue, user activity, U.S. radio station market share, and more.

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The company reported $80.8 million in revenue (with a net loss of 9 cents per share) for the quarter, up 58 percent compared to the same period a year ago. Those figures beat Wall Street’s estimates of $74.3 million (and an 18 cent per share net loss). Advertising revenue was also up 62 percent year-over-year at $70.6 million.

“Pandora is off to an excellent start, exceeding our first quarter outlook and raising our expectations for the full fiscal year,” stated Pandora CEO Joe Kennedy in the report. “Advertisers want to be everywhere their consumers are. They are moving quickly to speak with their target customers across the Pandora platform, with the majority of the top 50 digital advertisers in the U.S. already having bought multiplatform advertising on Pandora.”

In the earnings call, Kennedy said Pandora is “positioning ourselves to take full advantage of political advertising,” which is likely to ramp up as it inches closer to the 2012 elections. Kennedy added that the company has plenty of room to grow as it adds Pandora-ready devices into automobiles.

The company also updated investors on the music service’s total number of active users, which grew 53 percent to 51.9 million. The total number of hours listened to for the quarter hit 3.09 billion. That’s right on track with the 1.06 billion hours reported earlier this month. Pandora also grew its market share among U.S. radio stations, which accounts for a nice chunk of local advertising dollars.

However, Pandora will still have to contend with higher music licensing costs and increased competition from services like Spotify. One thing that could be an issue, but wasn’t discussed in detail, is Pandora’s growing local advertising sales force. I suspect this will become more important as the year progresses.

Summary of Pandora’s Q1 earnings results pasted below:

• 1Q13 revenue of $80.8 million grew 58% year-over-year
• Active users reach record 51.9 million growing 53% year-over-year
• 1Q13 total listener hours of 3.09 billion grew 92% year-over-year
• Record 71.7% share of top 20 U.S. Internet radio services at the end of 1Q13
• Record 5.95% share of total U.S. radio listening at the end of 1Q13 grew from 3.11%
• 1Q12