Spotify announced a new partnership with Merchbar. This deal means that artists who list their merchandise through Merchbar will have top products automatically populated on their artist page for the streaming service. Continue Reading
Spotify has surpassed 100 million active users, a representative confirmed to RAIN News. It’s a big milestone for the streaming service. At the end of 2015, Spotify had 89 million active users, including about 28 million paying subscribers. Continue Reading
Spotify has hired a new exec as head of investor relations, the latest signal that an IPO is in the streaming service’s future. The new addition is Paul Vogel, who joins Spotify after most recently running Barclays’ Internet and media research group. Continue Reading
This week Spotify will release the newest edition of its ongoing consumer survey that seeks to measure listening reach — specifically how Spotify Free compares to local AM/FM radio. The results offer a view of radio listening that unites traditional broadcast with Spotify Free, the ad-supported listening tier. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Troy Carter goes to Spotify — is it a trend signal? Also The Pirate Bay returns to its original domain and Apple’s App Store is getting a big revamp. Continue Reading
Daniel Ek has no plans to sell off Spotify to a larger tech company. That came from a Q&A with reporters in Stockholm. He cautioned that selling off European startups to U.S. tech enterprises was hoiding back the EU tech industry. Continue Reading
Spotify has hired Troy Carter as its global head of creator services. Carter has a long history in music, spending 15 years in talent management and founding entertainment company Atom Factory. So far, the speculation is that Carter could be tasked with securing exclusive releases for the streaming service. Continue Reading
The partnership between Spotify and lyrics provider Musixmatch has dissolved as of May 27. As a result, the Lyrics button in Spotify’s interface no longer displays the words to the currently playing song. That feature first appeared on the desktop version of the service last February. Continue Reading
Twitter has added Spotify support to its audio cards. Any of the streaming service’s 30 million tracks can be turned into the audio post on Twitter. The cards will only play 30-second previews and will link to the full song in Spotify. Continue Reading
Spotify has debuted a new outlet for brands to get involved with the streaming company’s popular playlists. Sponsored Playlist puts a brand’s name on one of Spotify’s curated playlists, with the sponsorship options designed to match marketing needs with a musical audience. This marketing option is now available in the U.S. and in beta in the UK. Continue Reading
Spotify has signed a deal with Dubset Media Holdings that will bring more mixes onto the streaming platform. Dubset’s MixBank technology can be used to identify copyrighted music in a user-generated song, which means the appropriate labels and publishers can clear the samples used in a mix. Continue Reading
Spotify’s recently released 2015 financials created an interesting story: strong revenue growth and market domination, along with widening losses at the bottom line. Midia Research founder Mark Mulligan peels back the layers to analyze underlying dynamics. “Rights costs are the Spotify’s Achilles Heel.” Can scaling audience growth give Spotify enough leverage to gain better label rates? If not, the outcome might be unwelcome to those rights-holders. This guest column is a must-read. Continue Reading