Pandora Reports Record 2Q14 Financial Results

Great news for Pandora! But with Spotify and the upcoming release of iTunes Radio the music streaming juggernauts seem poised for an epic battle to be our preferred music source.

iTunes Radio has already secured multimillion-dollar ad commitments from the likes of Pepsi, Nissan, Procter & Gamble and McDonald’s, according to a report in AdAge. The report states that Apple got 12-month commitments from the brands to run ads into the iTunes Radio audio stream.

iTunes Radio will have the distinct advantage of being pre-installed on iOS, although Pandora is pretty much ubiquitous at this point and could easily maintain its superior scale on Android and other devices. In its announcement, for instance, Pandora underscored that is available on over 1,000 connected devices and claims to be installed on almost a third of all new cars sold in the U.S. this year.

– Non-GAAP total mobile revenue up 92% year-over-year to $116.0 million

– Pandora closes record revenue quarter, with non-GAAP revenue of $162.0 million, growing 58% year-over-year

– 2Q14 total listener hours of 3.88 billion, growing 18% year-over-year

– Share of total U.S. radio listening for Pandora in July 2013 was 7.08%, an increase from 6.02% at the same time last year

– Active users reach 71.2 million, growing 30% year-over-year