Amazon shares shot up nearly 5 percent Thursday afternoon after the company reported first quarter earnings and revenue above what analysts were anticipating.
For the first three months of the year, Amazon had sales of $35.7 billion, up from $29.1 billion in the same period in 2016. Net income for the quarter was $1.48 per share.
Wall Street, polled by Thomson Reuters, expected the e-commerce giant to report earnings of $1.12 per share, excluding some items, and revenue of $35.3 billion.
While Amazon doesn't break out its earning numbers for its three-tiered music subscription services which includes Amazon Music Unlimited and Prime Music, its Supplemental Financial Information and Business Metric bundles lists total net sales under the heading Retail Subscription Services.
This includes "annual and monthly fees associated with Amazon Prime membership, as well as audiobook, e-book, digital video, digital music, and other subscription services." For the latest quarter subscription services generated nearly $1.9 billion dollars in net sales, a 52% year-over-year growth from Q1 2016 when it stood at $1.3 billion--none of which explains how much of that is for its relatively new music Amazon Music Unlimited which launched last October.
The new service came on top of its music streaming service, Prime Music, which launched two years earlier with a relatively small catalog of around two million songs. Unlimited, however, expanded that catalog to the level of Spotify, Apple and other competitors.
Unlimited cost an extra $3.99 per month to connect your Echo device (the price point excludes use of the service on any other device), while Prime members could subscribe to Unlimited for an additional $7.99 per month or $79.99 per year. Those without either paid $9.99 a month for the service, equivalent to Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal's ad-free tiers.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, however, highlighted the company's growth in India in a statement, noting that the company has announced 18 original television series in the country and has released a Fire TV Stick for Indian customers with voice search available in English and Hindi.
"We're grateful that customers are responding — Amazon.in is the most visited and the fastest growing marketplace in India. It's still day one for e-commerce in India, and I assure you that we'll keep investing in technology and infrastructure while working hard to invent on behalf of our customers and small and medium businesses in India."
During the first quarter, Amazon won its first Oscars, including best actor for Casey Affleck's performance in Manchester by the Sea. It also announced plans to stream a package of the NFL's Thursday Night Football games next season.
Next quarter, Amazon is expecting sales between $35.25 billion and $37.75 billion.
Amazon stock closed the day up 1 percent to $918.99.
