Shazam now has more active users than Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer combined – but its losses are accelerating.
According to freshly-registered fiscal results, Shazam Entertainment Ltd suffered the biggest net loss in its history over the 12 months of 2014.
In the Companies House filing, Shazam says that it now has monthly active users ‘approaching 120m’.
For comparison’s sake: Spotify currently attracts 75m active users, with Apple Music on somewhere around 11m and Deezer on 16m.
Shazam says its main Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is revenue – and on that basis alone it had a good year in 2014.
Total turnover stood at £36.01m in the 12 months.
A direct year-on-year comparison to 2013 is not possible as Shazam recently shifted its accounting period to match the calendar year – resulting in a standalone six-month fiscal report for the second half of 2013.
But compared to FY2013 (the 12 months to end of June – £31m turnover), Shazam’s revenues in 2014 were up 16%. It posted £16.89m in revenues in the standalone six months ended December 2013.
However, London-based Shazam’s net losses grew to £14.84m in 2014, widening of 650% on those seen in FY2013 (£1.98m).
The firm lost £5.76m in the six months to end of 2013.
That means in the three years between 2012 and 2014, Shazam has posted more than £25m ($38.5m) in net losses.
Meanwhile, Shazam grew to 243 employees in 2014, up from 197 at the end of 2013. Its total salary spend hit £19.93m last year – meaning Shazam now pays out an average wage of £82,016.
With National Insurance/Social Security and pensions included, its total staff costs reached £25.75m last year.
The total annual income of Shazam’s highest paid director in 2014 – thought to be either CEO Rich Riley (pictured) or Executive Director Andrew Fischer – including bonuses was £422,015.
Shazam has taken on two major investments in the past two years: a fund raise in March 2014 was led by Clifton Capital LP, which together with another party invested US $10m into Shazam.
Then in January this year, six investors, led by ZCP Holdings Ltd, invested US $48.9m into the company – which resulted in the firm giving itself a $1bn valuation.
The last time Shazam turned a net profit was in 2006.
