LiveOne has posted its first quarterly earnings report after adjusting a long-running Tesla deal. Photo Credit: Bram Van Oost
Two months and change following the end of its subsidy under Tesla Premium Connectivity, LiveOne (NASDAQ: LVO) has reported over $29 million in Q4 2024 revenue, which slipped nearly 6% year over year.
The Slacker parent disclosed this and other performance specifics in a newly released earnings report for October, November, and December 2024 (the fiscal third quarter). When we last checked in on LiveOne, higher-ups in October confirmed an “amended” agreement between their company and Tesla.
As we noted then, Tesla had for some time been subsidizing LiveOne subs (“subsidizing” being the term used by the audio-entertainment business) as one component of the Premium Connectivity package.
Said package costs Tesla owners $9.99 monthly, of which $3 was previously forwarded to LiveOne for its role in providing music, according to execs.
But owing to the nixed subsidy, the $3-a-pop automatic payments ceased at the top of December 2024. Tesla, LiveOne elaborated, will continue to pay for “grandfathered” Premium Connectivity users “in perpetuity.”
Besides the latter, that left it up to the SMYLE Coffee owner, having long generated a substantial portion of its revenue from the auto segment, to convert Tesla owners into direct subscribers. Of course, these results are best tracked across not just a couple months, but through 2025 and beyond.
Nevertheless, DAX-partnered LiveOne reported north of 860,000 total paid and ad-supported users as of January 2025 (with about 450,000 on the ad-supported side) and a 78% boost for direct-billed Premium subscribers.
During the corresponding earnings call, CEO Robert Ellin touted LiveOne’s standalone availability in Tesla vehicles (along with a slate of forthcoming B2B tie-ups) as a “multibillion-dollar opportunity.”
On the other hand, the exec acknowledged the near-term revenue hit stemming from the retooled Tesla agreement.
Overall, LiveOne generated $29.45 million during the final three months of 2024, down about 5.8% YoY, the earnings report shows.
Behind the figure, “membership services” (attributable to direct subs and those facilitated via third-party pacts) fell 15.2% YoY to $14.29 million, with a 21.3% YoY boost for advertising to $12.85 million.
Also during last year’s fourth quarter, LiveOne’s net loss jumped over 150% YoY to $5.64 million, per the performance breakdown. ($5.23 million or so of that sum is attributable directly to the company; corporate’s net loss finished at $2.20 million.)
Elsewhere in the earnings call, execs indicated that LiveOne price increases could be in the cards for the coming 12 months. (Though Premium is billed at $10.99 monthly, Plus is currently available for $3.33 per month when customers purchase a full year in one go.)
LiveOne revised its full-fiscal-year guidance to between $112 million and $120 million; as nine-month revenue came in at $95.12 million, that implies a substantial YoY decrease for January, February, and March 2025.
Lastly, LiveOne and SoundExchange on January 13th extended the repayment period for their settlement agreement (with $4.1 million in outstanding royalties as of 2024’s end) into January 2027, the company confirmed. During today’s trading, LVO shares parted with about 4% of their value to finish at 93 cents apiece.