Napster narrows loss in 4Q; revenue up 6 percent

LOS ANGELES—Napster Inc. said Wednesday its loss narrowed during its fiscal fourth quarter by nearly 50 percent from the same quarter a year earlier, as the online music retailer saw higher sales and added more subscribers.

The Los Angeles-based company posted a loss of $4.3 million, or 10 cents per share, in the three months ended March 31. That compares with a loss of $8.5 million, or 20 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue rose 6 percent to $30.8 million from $29.1 million.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected a loss of 13 cents per share on $30.7 million in revenue.

Napster said it closed the quarter with about 760,000 paid subscribers worldwide, up from 743,000 at the end of December.

The company forecast its first-quarter revenue will range between $30 million and $31 million, with earnings per share to be relatively flat.

Napster Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Chris Gorog said recent initiatives in mobile music and a shift to selling tracks in the MP3 format -- making Napster's a la carte downloads compatible with iPods and virtually all digital music players -- would help drive future revenue growth.

For fiscal year 2008, the company reported a net loss of $16.5 million, or 38 cents per share, compared with a loss of $36.8 million, or 85 cents per share, during the previous period.

Total net revenue rose 15 percent to $127.5 million from $111.1 million in fiscal 2007.

Wall Street analysts had expected a loss of 40 cents per share on sales of $127.3 million.

Napster's results were released after markets closed. Its shares fell 4 cents, or about 2.4 percent, in after-hours trading after they rose 6 cents, or about 3.7 percent, to $1.69 in regular trading Wednesday.

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Napster Inc.: http://www.napster.com