First the numbers. Pandora’s listening hours for the month of February totaled 1.51 billion, up from 1.38 billion in February of 2013. The company also claimed that its market share climbed from 8.25% to 8.91% in the past 12 months and that its number of active listeners grew from 67.7 million in February 2013 to 75.3 million this year.
But investors have a couple of concerns. The rate of growth is slowing, and the number of hours in February fell from 1.58 billion in January. Not a good development. Second, Pandora said that will stop releasing these monthly metrics after the June 2014 release. Anytime a company other than J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP) stops providing information on performance, the stock price usually takes a hit.
Spotify, the U.K.-based music streaming company, is viewed as the greatest threat to Pandora. Originally a subscription-based company, Spotify now offers an advertising-supported streaming service as well.
The company claims 24 million active users, with about 6 million who pay the monthly subscription fee for the premium (no advertising) service. Spotify also has been reported to be seeking a U.S. financial reporting specialist, a position that typically precedes an initial public offering. The company could be worth as much as $8 billion, roughly the same as Pandora.
Thursday morning Spotify acquired The Echo Nest for an undisclosed sum, and it has said that it will let the newly acquired company’s free API remain free and open to other streaming services that use it to recommend new music to users. That sort of arrangement usually never lasts very long as the companies using the acquired technology do not want to depend on a competitor for key technology. TechCrunch notes that a similar service called Gracenote is available from the Tribune Co., which recently acquired the service from Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) for $170 million.
Pandora shares were down about 3.5% just before noon on Thursday, in a 52-week range of $11.54 to $40.44.
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