Pandora raises full year forecast on higher ad sales

(Reuters) - Online music streaming company Pandora Media Inc raised its full year forecast and reported better-than-expected second quarter revenue as it signed up more subscribers and increased its advertising revenue. Shares of the company, which uses streaming software that can predict a listener's preferences, rose 3.7 pct to $14.40 in extended trading. Pandora said active users rose about 4 pct to 79.4 million in the second quarter, from a year earlier. Total listener hours rose to 5.30 billion from 5.04 billion. Listening hours have risen steadily since Pandora launched a smartphone and tablet app. In June it made it added its automated advertising service to its smartphone service. Ad revenue rose 30.2 percent to $230.9 million, in the second quarter ended June 30, while subscription and other revenue rose to $54.6 million from $41.6 million. Pandora gets about 81 percent of total revenue from advertising. The company said it expects 2015 revenue of $1.175 billion-$1.185 billion, compared with its previous forecast of $1.16 billion-$1.18 billion Pandora faces stiff competition from Spotify, Apple Inc's Beats online streaming service, Google Inc , and Amazon.com Inc in the fast-growing music streaming business. The company forecast third quarter revenue of $310 million-$315 million, above average analysts' estimate of $309.1 million. The company's net loss widened to $16.1 million, or 8 cents per share, in the second quarter ended June 30, from $11.7 million, or 6 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding items, Pandora earned 5 cents per share. Revenue rose to $285.6 million from $218.9 million. Analysts on average had expected earnings of 2 cents per share on revenue of $283.1 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. (Reporting by Kshitiz Goliya in Bengaluru; Editing by Simon Jennings and Rodney Joyce)