LIQUID AUDIO LOSSES RISE

Liquid Audio, makers of software and tools designed to deliver digital music over the Internet, on Monday (7/31) reported a bigger quarterly loss, but one that came in ahead of Wall Street forecasts.

The company said its net loss for the second quarter ended June 30 was $7.7 million, or 35 cents a share, compared to $6.1 million, or 29 cents a share a year earlier.

Liquid Audio had been expected to lose 40 cents a share, according to the consensus analysts' estimate compiled by First Call/Thomson Financial, a Reuters report said.

Revenues were $3.5 million, up more than four times the $745,000 million in the same quarter last year, the company said.

"We measured our progress for the second quarter in 364% year-over-year revenue growth and new cumulative milestones in content, syndication and platform adoption," CEO Gerry Kearby said in a statement.

Liquid Audio said it now provides software or services to 900 music and retail Web sites, up 20% from the first quarter, and that its technology had been used to encode 80,000 songs from 9,800 artists.

Shares in Liquid Audio fell 7/16 to 9-1/4 on Monday's NASDAQ.

Hitsdailydouble.com has no clue if this is good or bad news for the company.