RAIN Notes: September 4, 2025
Billion with a “B” The Weeknd
Ongoing Partnership iHeartMedia
A the Core Sounds Profitable
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Spotify
SPOT Q2: User growth and mixed financials
Spotify unleashed its Q2 earnings this morning. (Transcript HERE.) Investors reacted to the cautious tone expressed by CEO Daniel Ek, pulling the stock price sharply downward. Within that framework of reaction, Spotify did report increased revenue and surging subscribers. Click for details, graphics and linkage. Continue Reading
RAIN Notes: July 28
Closed for Sharpening – JAR Audio
Books vs. Music – Spotify
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Spotify “Spreadbeats” campaign wins Drum Award
“Spotify doesn’t come to mind as a tried-and-true video ad platform. Media planners think of it as a digital audio platform.” Overcoming that challenge has led Spotify to winning the B2B category in the recently announced Drum Awards. The… Continue Reading
RAIN Notes: July 3
AMEVA Goes Around Again – U.S. Congress
Happy 10th; Happy 100 Billionth – Spotify
Intersecting Passions – Douglas Trostler Continue Reading
RAIN Notes: June 23
Spotify’s Hint – Alan Cross
Local Media’s Next Move Steve Goldstein
Another Notch Jen Poyant
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Spotify releases Q1 finances: “We are pleased.”
Global streaming behemoth Spotify released its Q1 finance/product update for the first quarter, clearly pleased with its results across earnings, subscriber data, user count, and all reported financial indicators. Investors appeared to be vigorously pleased. Click for metrics.
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RAIN Notes: April 10
SAX: Spotify launches in-house programmatic ad creation, buying, measurement
Streaming colossus Spotify has announced a proprietary programmatic ad exchange for buying and measuring advertising campaigns on Spotify. Called Spotify Ad Exchange, and officially abbreviated as SAX, the platform is available via several leading demand-side buying platforms (DSPs). Click for all the info. Continue Reading
Spotify: $10B payout in 2024; $60B lifetime — indie artists highlighted in a raft of metrics
Spotify has released a Music Economics Report for 2024. In it, we see interesting metrics about the platform’s reach, payouts to participating artists, metrics pertaining to songwriters and composers, and the elite class of Spotify millionaires, and much more. Click for detailed coverage and link to the original.
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Rumor (Fact)ory: Spotify to launch add-on service for superfans
The rumor (fact)ory jumped the gun on the post-holiday work week with multiple reports of Spotify readying the launch of a new service tier. Targeted to “super fans,” the new plan would boost Spotify’s monthly subscription price by $5.99 per month. To justify the higher price, three added features are reportedly planned. Continue Reading
A high bar for growth, defying expectations, and more from Spotify to investors
In Spotify’s Q4 earnings call with investors, the word “podcast” was not spoken in the prepared remarks. Only when an investor asked about it in the Q&A portion did the company address its podcast business by name. In reply, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek numbered four ways in which value has been added to Spotify’s advertisers: “AI is one of those ways, video is obviously another one, podcasting is the third, audiobooks is the fourth.” Onekey point: Leaving the door open to charging for ad-supported listening. Click for key points and quotes from Spotify’s Q4 earnings call. Continue Reading