DESTINY MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES INC - Quarter Report: 2020 February (Form 10-Q)

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-Q

(Mark One)

[X] QUARTERLY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(D) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the quarterly period ended February 29, 2020

[  ] TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(D) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from _____ to _____

Commission File Number    0-28259             

DESTINY MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

604-609-7736

(Registrant's telephone number, including area code)

(Former name, former address and former fiscal year, if changes since last report)

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.                           

[X] Yes  [  ] No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).

[X] Yes  [  ] No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See definitions of "large accelerated filer," "accelerated filer," "smaller reporting company" and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act

[  ] Yes  [  ] No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act) 

[  ]Yes  [X] No

APPLICABLE ONLY TO CORPORATE ISSUERS:

Indicate the number of shares outstanding of each of the issuer's class of common stock, as of the latest practicable date:

The number of shares outstanding of the registrant's common stock, par value $0.001, as of April 12, 2020 was 11,002,775.

PART I - FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Item 1. Financial Statements.

Item 2. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

The following discussion should be read in conjunction with the accompanying financial statements and notes thereto included within this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.  In addition to historical information, the information in this discussion contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"). These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding the Company's capital needs, business strategy and expectations.  Any statements contained herein that are not statements of historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. 

In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may", "will", "should", "expect", "plan", "intend", "anticipate", "believe", estimate", "predict", "potential" or "continue", the negative of such terms or other comparable terminology.  Actual events or results may differ materially.  In evaluating these statements, you should consider various factors described in this Quarterly Report, including the risk factors under "Item 1A. Risk Factors." of part II, and, from time to time, in other reports the Company files with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These factors may cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statement. The Company disclaims any obligation to publicly update these statements or disclose any difference between its actual results and those reflected in these statements. Such information constitutes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

OVERVIEW AND CORPORATE BACKGROUND

Destiny Media Technologies Inc. was incorporated in August 1998 under the laws of the State of Colorado and the corporate jurisdiction was changed to Nevada effective October 8, 2014. We carry out our business operations through our wholly owned subsidiary, Destiny Software Productions Inc., a British Columbia company that was incorporated in 1992, MPE Distribution, Inc. a Nevada company that was incorporated in 2007 and Sonox Digital Inc. incorporated under the Canada Business Corporations Act in 2012. The "Company", "Destiny Media", "Destiny", "we" or "us" refers to the consolidated activities of all four companies.

Our principal executive office is located at Suite 1110, 885 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6C 3E8. Our telephone number is (604) 609-7736 and our facsimile number is (604) 609-0611.

Our common stock trades on TSX Venture Exchange in Canada under the symbol "DSY", on the OTCQB U.S. ("OTCQB") under the symbol "DSNY", and on various German exchanges (Frankfurt, Berlin, Stuttgart and Xetra) under the symbol DME, WKN 935 410.

Our corporate website is located at http://www.dsny.com.

OUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

Destiny develops and markets software as a service (SaaS) solutions that solve critical problems in digital distribution and promotion for businesses in the music industry.  The core of our business is Play MPE®, a promotional music marketing and digital distribution service. Play MPE® is a service for promoting and securely distributing broadcast quality audio, video, images, promotional information and other digital content through the internet. The system is currently used by the recording industry for transferring pre-release broadcast quality music, radio shows, and music videos to trusted recipients such as radio stations, media reviewers, VIP's, DJ's, film and TV personnel, sports stadiums and retailers.

Play MPE®

Play MPE® is a two sided marketplace platform that enables music labels and artists to create and distribute promotional content and musical assets on the one side, and music broadcasting professionals, music curators and music reviewers to discover, listen to, download and consume, on the other.  Play MPE® is a cloud-based enterprise SaaS product.

Typically, record labels and artists promote new music through the presentation of broadcast quality audio, video, images, promotional information, industry required meta data, and other digital content.  The presentation of this promotional material is catered to music curators who can expose that music to a larger consumer audience through broadcasts (examples include radio, internet radio, streaming services, DJs etc.) or publicity and media destinations. The system is also used to promote music and artists to label A&R teams, and music supervisors (who work with TV/movie producers to recommend musical content to accompany video productions).

Broadcast play of music provides revenue directly to record labels and artists through royalties and indirectly through sales, concerts / live performances, merchandise sales etc. as the profile and popularity of the musical work and artist increase. Effective marketing is critical in growing the popularity of a song or an artist and thereby revenue for a particular artist. Play MPE® is a critical step in this process. Easy-to-use and collaborative tools on the player side (music curator side) improves activity which improves the likelihood that a particular track obtains broadcast play. Feedback of recipient activity provides valuable information to record labels improving data centric marketing decision making.

Our customers range from small independent artists, small to large independent record labels ("Indies"), to promoters, and to the world's largest record labels (the "Major Record Labels") (Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment).  Our Major Record Label clients have offices around the world and typically represent the world's largest recording artists.  All three Major Record Labels, and thousands of Indies use Play MPE® for promotional distribution.

Play MPE® provides a wide array of features which provide efficient access to a promotional hub of activity.  Client characteristics determine which features are of greater interest with the active promotional recipients being of common interest to all clients. Major Labels can take advantage of the platform's more powerful and efficiency producing features including tiered rights, permissions-based user profiles, integration with database archives, release sharing with foreign territories etc.  For example, some customer staff may manage assets (album cover imagery, music videos, the raw music, promotional information and other metadata), while others manage hierarchical permission-based lists of recipients.  These more powerful features are unique to the Play MPE® platform. 

The release dates for music can be dependent on the territory and, where administrative settings permit, local promotions staff may generate a localized distribution of the song with modified marketing information in the local language. Local staff may select pre-existing assets from the system and combine them together with a local recipient lists to form a "send". Our customers also choose the level of access for the recipients assigned to the release by designating whether the release can be streamed, downloaded, exported into an unlocked digital format or burned to a CD. 

While many clients are set up to manage and upload recipient lists, many rely on the proprietary lists provided within the service.  Our staff manages lists of recipients in various formats and geographies and those lists are made available to our customers using the Play MPE® system. The Play MPE® system provides Play MPE® staff with the feedback and resources necessary to manage and maintain this network of recipients, which is not available with physical distribution or by smaller competitors.  Customers select lists of recipients within the proprietary network based on music format and geography. 

All exported songs are marked in real time with Destiny's watermark technology, which has received three US patents and a number of analogous patents globally. From information provided by Play MPE®, songs appearing on the internet can be scanned by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry's ("IFPI"). Headquartered in London, UK, the IFPI is the organization that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide and one of its missions is to safeguard the rights of record producers. IFPI web crawlers visit torrents, peer to peer networks and websites searching for unauthorized content. When problem files are identified, the IFPI can run proprietary software to identify Play MPE®'s unique watermark to identify the originating source.

After the content is released, all activity by the recipient is logged in real time, providing record labels and promotions staff real time detail on which songs are accessed, streamed, downloaded and exported. This information provides valuable feedback in real time to marketing and promotions staff who can cater their programs appropriately. Recipients receive a custom library of available tracks and are able to repeat the download if music is lost. 

Play MPE® browser-based tools are accessible on any computer without installation, access to both Mac and PC users. The tool provides release sharing capabilities, to facilitate faster more user-friendly sharing of assets by our global label customers. Finally, it also allows for easy translation into multiple languages to accelerate international expansion.

We continue to invest in additional development of Play MPE® Version 8 and related tools and applications. In December 2019, the Company announced the new "localization" capability of the sending side of the Play MPE® platform.  This feature supports easy translation of the platform.  The Company then added Spanish, German, Japanese and French to the sending side software.  The Company believes these language translations will facilitate global expansion of the Play MPE® platform.

In January 2020, the Company announced an improved recipient side platform for Play MPE® which has added advanced recipient authentication, improved song search capabilities, and content management features all designed to increase recipient side functionality and ease of use.  These features are designed to increase song discovery and activity within the Play MPE® platform.

Clipstream®

The Company also has a legacy business, Clipstream®, in the online video industry for which it is pursuing strategic alternatives. The Clipstream® Online Video Platform (OVP) is a self-service system, for encoding, hosting and reporting on video playback which can be embedded in third party websites or emails. Playback is currently through the Company's proprietary JavaScript codec engine, which is only available on the internet through the Company.  The unique software-based approach to rendering video, is protected by over two dozen patents claiming initial priority to 2011.  This product is has incidental revenues and is not supported or marketed.

RESULTS OF OPERATIONS FOR THE THREE AND SIX MONTH PERIODS ENDED FEBRUARY 29. 2020 AND FEBRUARY 28, 2019

Revenue

Total revenue for the six months ending February 29, 2020 declined by less than 1% ($1,852,585 in 2020 - $1,863,383 in 2019) due to the decline in Clipstream related revenue which now represents approximately 1% of the Company's revenue.  Play MPE® revenue, which represents all other revenue of the Company (approximately 99%) increased by less than 1%.

Total revenue for the three-month period ended February 29, 2020 declined by $72,635 over the comparable quarter in fiscal 2019, to $806,729 (2019 - $879,364).  Foreign exchange did not significantly impact revenue for either the three or six month periods.  The decline in Play MPE® revenue realized during our second quarter is primarily a temporary adjustment as we renew agreements in the United States.

In late January 2020, Play MPE® launched in Canada with Universal Music Canada (UMC) distributing all releases through the Play MPE® platform.  Concurrently, several major independent record labels and a second major record label started distributing releases through Play MPE® under trial arrangements.  With the greater content available within the Play MPE® platform, recipient side activity within Play MPE® has grown substantially and user reception has been very positive.  Play MPE® will continue to expand usage on both sides of the platform prior to negotiating commercial agreements and commencing revenue generation.  The Company expects revenue to commence during the fiscal year.   

Operating Expenses

Overview

As our technologies and products are developed and maintained in-house, the majority of our expenditures are on salaries and wages and associated expenses such as office space, supplies and benefits. Our operations are primarily conducted in Canada and therefore, our costs are primarily incurred in Canadian dollars while our revenues are primarily denominated in Euros and US dollars. Thus, operating expenses and the results of operations are impacted, to the extent they are not hedged, by the rise and fall of the relative values of the Canadian dollar to these currencies. The Company maintains a large portion of its financial reserves in Canadian dollars to mitigate the downside risk of adverse exchange rates on its operating expenditures.

Operating costs during the six-month period ended February 29, 2020 increased by 23.2% to $1,757,029 (2019 - $1,425,647). The increase in costs was primarily the result of non-recurring (one-time) costs associated with staff restructuring, professional fees associated with the Company's Normal Course Issuer Bid (NCIB) repurchase of the 5% of the Company's shares, professional fees associated with the share consolidation.  Additionally, the Company added staffing designed to increase the speed and quality of product enhancements and added to business development staffing to increase the speed of revenue growth. 

Our general and administrative expenses consist of salaries and related personnel costs including overhead, office rent, and general office supplies. General and administrative costs also include professional fees and general travel expenditures. The increase in professional fees is the result of professional fees associated with staff restructuring, share consolidation and share repurchase activities.  This increase is non-recurring.

Sales and marketing expenses consist of salaries and related personnel costs including overhead, office rent, and telecommunications costs.  Sales and marketing expenses also include advertising and marketing expenditures, which consist of promotional materials, online or print advertising, business development tools, and marketing or business development related travel costs including attendance at conference or trade shows, and record label and client visits. The increase in staffing costs primarily relates to one time charges associated with staff restructuring.  Wages also increased over the prior year through additional staff designed to grow and enhance business development activities. The increase in advertising and marketing expenses is related to increase travel expenditures for our staff to attend label visits and industry events.

Product development costs consist primarily of salaries and related personnel costs including overhead and consulting fees with respect to product development and deployment. The increase in wages and benefits is related to an increase in staffing in product development during the quarter. The Company has also restructured the use of external hosting services resulting in a permanent decline in costs with no reduction in system reliability or capabilities. 

Depreciation and Amortization

Depreciation and amortization expense increased to $67,550 for the six-month period ended February 29, 2020 from $40,335 for the period ended February 28, 2019, an increase of 67.5% due to an increase in computer software costs associated with externally developed Play MPE® recipient player applications.

Other earnings and expenses

Interest income was $14,477 for the six-month period ended February 29, 2020 (2019: $12,921) and is derived from one-year Guaranteed Investment Certificates.

Net income

During the six-month period ended February 29, 2020 we had net loss of $43,673 (2019 - $300,909 net income). Overall, a modest decline in revenue was accompanied by increased spending on staffing and marketing and advertising costs, as discussed above.

For the three-month period ended February 29, 2020, adjusted EBITDA was ($126,136) (2019 - EBITDA $105,239).  Adjusted EBITDA is not defined under generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP") and it may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. We used Adjusted EBITDA, along with other GAAP measures, as a measure of profitability because Adjusted EBITDA helps us to compare our performance on a consistent basis by removing from our operating results the impact of our capital structure, the effect of operating in different tax jurisdictions, the impact of our asset base, which can differ depending on the book value of assets, the accounting methods used to compute depreciation and amortization, the existence or timing of asset impairments and the effect of non-cash stock-based compensation expense. We believe Adjusted EBITDA is useful to investors as it is a widely used measure of performance and the adjustments we make to Adjusted EBITDA provide further clarity on our profitability. We remove the effect of non-cash stock-based compensation from our earnings which can vary based on share price, share price volatility and expected life of the equity instruments we grant. In addition, this stock-based compensation expense does not result in cash payments by us. Adjusted EBITDA has limitations as a profitability measure in that it does not include the interest expense on our debts, our provisions for income taxes, the effect of our expenditures for capital assets, the effect of non-cash stock-based compensation expense and the effect of asset impairments. The following is a reconciliation of net income (loss) from operations to Adjusted EBITDA over the eight most recently completed fiscal quarters:

LIQUIDITY AND FINANCIAL CONDITION

Our cash and cash equivalents balance decreased by $1,461,961 during the six-month period ended February 29, 2020, due in part to the investment of surplus funds in short-term deposits with a one-year maturity. As at February 29, 2020, we held $1,050,177 (August 31, 2019 - $2,512,138) in cash and cash equivalents.  Our short-term investments consist of one-year Guaranteed Investment Certificates (GICs) held through a major Canadian financial institution increased by $749,326 to $1,129,382 (August 31, 2019 - $380,056).

At February 29, 2020, we had working capital of $2,097,522 compared to $2,809,689 as at August 31, 2019. The decrease in our working capital was primarily due to the repurchase of common stock under a common stock repurchase program, pursuant to a Normal Course Issuer Bid ("NCIB") facilitated through the TSX Venture Exchange, which commenced in September 2019.  During the three and six-month periods ended February 29, 2020, the Company completed open market purchases of 251,385 and 298,755 common shares for a total cost of $241,334 and $291,889 respectively, for total repurchases of $533,223.  Working capital also declined following the recognition of an operating lease liability following adoption of ASU 2016-02, at February 29, 2020 the current portion of the operating lease liability was $219,894 (August 31, 2019 - $nil).

CASH FLOWS

Net cash used in operating activities for the six-month period ended February 29, 2020 was $133,752, compared to net cash provided by of $433,660 for the six months ended February 28, 2019.  The primary reason for the decrease in cash flows from operating activities is due to an increase in operating expenses, as described above, as well as an increase in accounts receivable during the quarter.

Net cash used in investing activities for the six-month period ended February 29, 2020 was $796,851, compared to $64,284 for the six-month period ended February 28, 2020. During the six-month period ended February 29, 2020, approximately $753,000 was spent on the investment of cash in GICs during the period. Investing activities during the six-month period ended February 28, 2019 were attributable solely to expenditures on property, equipment and intangibles.

Net cash used in financing activities during the six-month period ended February 29, 2020 was $533,223, related to cash used to repurchase and retire 550,140 shares of common stock of the Company under the NCIB. There were no cash flows from financing activities during the six-month period ended February 28, 2019.

CRITICAL ACCOUNTING POLICIES

We prepare our interim condensed consolidated financial statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America, and make estimates and assumptions that affect our reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses, and the related disclosures of contingent liabilities. We base our estimates on historical experience and other assumptions that we believe are reasonable in the circumstances. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

There have been no significant changes in the critical accounting policies and estimates described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended August 31, 2019 as filed with the SEC on November 18, 2019 except for those described in Note 9, "New Accounting Pronouncements" in the notes to our Interim Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Form 10-Q.

NEW ACCOUNTING PRONOUNCEMENTS

Please refer to Note 9 "New Accounting Pronouncements" in the notes to our Interim Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Form 10-Q.

Item 3.  Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk.

Foreign Exchange Risk

Our revenues are primarily in United States dollars and Euros while our operating expenses are primarily in Canadian dollars. Thus, operating expenses and the results of operations are impacted to the extent they are not hedged by the rise and fall of the relative values of Canadian dollar to these currencies. During the three and six month periods ended February 29, 2020, as a result of fluctuations in the Euro, and the Australian, Canadian, and US dollars, the Company recognized a negative impact on reported revenues and a positive impact on reported operating expenditures, for an overall marginal positive impact on reported net income.

Item 4.  Controls and Procedures.

Disclosure Controls and Procedures

Disclosure controls and procedures and other procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed or submitted under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 is recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time period specified in the SEC's rules and forms. Disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 is accumulated and communicated to management including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.

In connection with this quarterly report, as required by Rule 13a-15 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, we have carried out an evaluation of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our company's disclosure controls and procedures. This evaluation was carried out under the supervision and with the participation of our Company's management, including our company's Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer. Based upon that evaluation, our company's Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that as of February 29, 2020, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective as at the end of the period covered by this report.

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

Our Chief Financial Officer resigned effective November 30, 2019.  Where internal controls rely on a separation of duties between the CEO and the CFO, our internal controls may be temporarily affected in that respect subsequent to November 30, 2019. 

PART II - OTHER INFORMATION

Item 1.  Legal Proceedings.

On September 5, 2017, the Company's former President and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Steve Vestergaard, filed a Notice of Civil Claim in the Supreme Court of British Columbia against the Company, its subsidiaries, independent directors and current Chief Executive Officer, claiming damages for conspiracy, breach of contract, wrongful dismissal, defamation and aggravated and punitive damages. The Company believes the claims are without merit and will defend itself against the claims.

Item 1A. Risk Factors.

In addition to the other information set forth in this Form 10-Q, you should carefully consider the factors discussed in "Item 1 - Risk Factors" in our Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2019 filed with the SEC. These risks could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. The risks described in our Form 10-K have not changed materially, however, they are not the only risks we face. Our operations could also be affected by additional factors that are not presently known to us or by factors that we currently consider immaterial to our business.

Item 2. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds.

None.

Item 3. Defaults Upon Senior Securities.

None.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures.

Not Applicable.

Item 5. Other Information.

None.

Item 6. Exhibits.

*    Filed herewith

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

DESTINY MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

By: /s/Frederick Vandenberg______________________

 Frederick Vandenberg

              Chief Executive Officer, President

 (Principal Executive Officer)

 Date: April 15, 2020

By: /s/Frederick Vandenberg______________________

 Frederick Vandenberg

              Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer

 (Principal Financing and Accounting Officer)

 Date: April 15, 2020