Tech

Pandora listening hours dip, will drop monthly metrics report

Internet radio giant Pandora on Thursday reported a month-over-month dip in the hours of music streamed — and then said it will stop reporting those stats on a monthly basis.

The move was viewed as a sign that growth is slowing.

Pandora will switch to quarterly reports after June.

February’s numbers rose 9 percent to 1.51 billion hours from the year earlier period — but slipped from January’s 1.58 billion hours.

CEO Brian McAndrews said at an investor conference that he expects the numbers to pick up in March and explained that Pandora is grappling with the “law of large numbers.”

Pandora’s stock ended Thursday trading down 5.6 percent at $37.23.

“The investment thesis is about improving monetization, and Pandora is doing all the right things in terms of measurement and improving ad formats; it’s a story across social media,” said Anthony DiClemente, who covers Pandora for Nomura.

Meanwhile, an audio media survey by Edison Research released Wednesday showed that 55 percent of all 12-to-24 year-olds listened to Pandora in the last month, versus 17 percent who listened to its next nearest competitor, Apple’s iRadio.

Sixteen percent of all youngsters listened to Spotify, and 12 percent listened to iHeartRadio.

The Edison Research survey gave Pandora a 31 percent share, with iHeart Radio at 9 percent.