Pandora posts strong quarterly profits

Internet radio service Pandora has posted quarterly profits of $8.98 million in the three months ending December 31, compared to $1.6 million in the same quarter the year previous.

The Oakland company posted year-end revenues of $638.9 million, a 56% increase on 2012, but recorded a larger annual loss - $40.7 million -  due to higher costs.

Listeners spent 16.7 billion hours listening to Pandora during 2013, up 23% from 2012. For the fourth quarter, the service captured 72% of all Internet radio listening.

Meanwhile, Pandora today announced the launch of an open submission process for independent artists to submit their tracks for inclusion on the service. More information can be found here.

Founder Tim Westergren says, “Discovery is at the core of Pandora’s mission. Our goal is to give every talented artist a chance to reach their audience, whatever the genre and without regard to popularity. Anything we can do to encourage submissions from talented new and emerging artists is a top priority.”

Pandora has over 1m registered users in Australia and was a winner of an Australian Mobile Award in 2013.