Rhapsody International, the Seattle-based streaming music service, posted a net loss of $7.97 million in the third quarter, falling further into the red even as its quarterly revenue climbed to more than $44 million — an increase of 25 percent from the same period a year ago.
The results for the privately held company were disclosed this week in a regulatory filing by RealNetworks, the Seattle-based digital media company that remains an investor in Rhapsody after spinning off the music service four years ago.
The filing doesn’t explain the reason for the larger loss, and the company declined to comment on the results in response to a GeekWire inquiry. The revenue of $44.1 million represents a new quarterly record, according to our review of Rhapsody’s publicly reported results since it became independent.
Rhapsody, an early pioneer in streaming music, also operates the Napster music service. The company faces strong competition from the likes of Spotify, Pandora, Apple and other major players in digital music.
Despite that competition, Rhapsody said in April that its combined subscriber base had grown to more than 1.7 million globally, an increase of 63 percent year-over-year. Recent initiatives include a new Internet radio service called unRadio, launched in partnership with T-Mobile, the Bellevue-based wireless carrier.
Founded in 2001, Rhapsody has stuck to a paid subscription model, in contrast with the popular freemium approach used by Spotify and others, which includes paid and free versions of its service.
Rhapsody moved into a new space at downtown Seattle’s Columbia Center earlier this year. The company last month named Soundwall co-founder and former SignalSoft CEO David Hose as interim CEO, and said it was searching for a permanent CEO to lead the company.
