Weeks before the release of her brand new single, Beyonce has joined Rap market leader Nicki Minaj in contributing to record revenue figures secured by Pandora Radio this year.
Revenue, that dances to the merry beat of $181.6 million!
Full story below…
As listeners rushed to the service to stream new material from both acts ahead of their respective new releases, Carter and Minaj saw their material account for the rise in subscriptions made to the service.
This, seeing both entertainer’s contribute to the increase in subscription revenue, which now sits at 20% in the third and most recent quarter- a far cry from the 16.2% the company could boast of between January and March of this year.
Doing her part to boost the company’s profits via her own material and contributing verses to a number of the year’s highest selling Hip Hop efforts, Minaj’s contribution to Pandora’s growth 50.3% in the last year came as it watched its mobile advertising pull in $104.9 million despite suffering a net loss of of $1.7 million.
Loss, partially brought on by an increase in sales staff despite lowering the payments it is obliged to make to artists and rights holders through the non-profit performances rights organisation, ‘SoundExchange.’
Billboard Biz explain:
“The improvement in royalties was “purely driven by our ability to monetize the business,” CFO Mike Herring tells Billboard. With Pandora’s royalty costs fixed at around $21 per 1,000 hours — it pays fixed statutory royalties rather than a percent-of-revenue royalty — the company focuses on how to drive revenue per 1,000 hours. “This year in particular we turned a corner to monetize, and monetize mobile hours specifically,” says Herring.”
Fans can look forward to new LPs from both vocalists in 2014.