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Spotify Q3 details & quotes: Users, Podcasts, Audiobooks

Spotify released Q3 earnings this week. We covered basic money metrics elsewhere. In this post, we scrutinize information gleaned from the earnings call. Below, three main topics: User growth, podcasting, and the audiobooks initiative. Audiobooks were of particular interest to investors, partly because it was difficult to coax financial predictions about them. Click for lots of detail and quotes. Continue Reading

Spotify gets more social with “Jam” group playlisting

Spotify is raising its social media game with the launch of a new collaborative function called Jam. It’s a group-playlisting feature that builds on the previously released Collaborative Playlist by putting the social activity in realtime, and giving it a phone-touching in-person aspect. Unlike many cautiously incremental launches, Jam is available globally now. Premium users start Jams, then any user can join. Continue Reading

With Spotify’s recent raise, major music services are settled at $10.99 subscription level

Spotify made news during its Q2 earnings report (See RAIN HERE and HERE) for raising its monthly Spotify Premium subscription rate from $9.99 to $10.99. Investor reaction, as a whole, could be characterized as “It’s about time.” Our survey of current music subscription pricing does support some investor impatience with Spotify, with six competing services having already boosted to that level.
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Acast partners with Podscribe, rejecting Spotify attribution solutions — (with Spotify response)

Acast has selected Podscribe as its “preferred attribution partner” in all markets. It’s a meaningful and sweeping endorsement of Podscribe’s performance analytics in podcast advertising. The other half of that handshake appears to be a back-of-hand reference to Spotify’s Ad Analytics tool which launched just two months ago. Continue Reading

Alex Cooper (“Call Her Daddy”) launches Gen Z podcast network

Leading podcast entrepreneur and Spotify star Alex Cooper, creator of Call Her Daddy, is forming a podcast company with her fiancee Matt Kaplan (Founder/CEO of ACE Entertainment). The company is called The Unwell Network. This enterprise does not change Cooper’s exclusive licensing of Call Her Daddy on Spotify. Continue Reading

Spotify Q2 earnings: Podcast investment, AI, Premium pricing, SPAN, and more

Spotify released its Q2 earnings report yesterday. Company executives Daniel Ek (CEO) and Paul Vogal (CFO) answered investor questions. Topics ranged from the recently announced subscription rate for Premium members, to company over-investment in podcasting, the Spotify Podcast Ad Network (SPAN), and the use of artificial intelligence. Click for the rundown with quotes. Continue Reading