Spotify released its 2013 financials, with a basic P&L that tells a vigorous growth story, higher revenue, and lower loss compared to the previous year. At the same time, most of the gross revenue was paid into the music industry as licensing expenses. Continue Reading
Spotify has reportedly posted a profit in France for the first time, Billboard reported. The streaming service allegedly had 66% growth in revenue during 2013 for a total of 18.75 million euros. Profit was more than 311,000 euros. Continue Reading
Spotify is expecting to expand its team by about a third, according to cofounder and Chairman of the Board Martin Lorentzon. He told reporters at a trade fair in Finland that the streaming company was recruiting around 500 new employees to join the current staff of 1,500 people. Continue Reading
Imagine getting into a taxi and hearing your Spotify playlist, which you were just listening to, coming out of the car stereo. That is the vision, and starting this Friday the reality, of a partnership announced today by Uber and Spotify. The heart of the deal is about ownership vs. access, of both music and transportation. Continue Reading
The British Academy of Songwriters, Composers And Authors weighed in on Taylor Swift’s decision to remove all of her music from Spotify over concerns that the singer was not being fairly compensated for her music. BASCA voiced support for Swift’s decision, but used the situation to call attention to the disparity in royalties paid to performers compared with those given to songwriters. Continue Reading
When a global consumer service loses the most popular product in its catalog, it’s pretty bad news on the face of it. The seriousness of Taylor Swift’s much-publicized withdrawal from Spotify is perhaps reflected in the gravity and scope of founder Daniel Ek’s blog response yesterday. But crowd opinion, and thousands of news articles, might add up to good publicity. Spotify itself is uniquely asking Taylor Swift to return, with a “Come back, Taylor!” playlist. Continue Reading
The decision by Taylor Swift and her label, Big Machine, to remove her entire back catalog from Spotify sparked a wave of debates and arguments about the pros and cons of the streaming music economy. Swift herself said in an interview with Yahoo that the reason for her action was her skepticism about streaming platforms. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek wrote a lengthy blog post in an effort to clear up misunderstandings about the streaming ecosystem that have sparked many of the most vocal diabtribes. Continue Reading
Several leaders from the music industry spoke last week at the Web Summit in Dublin about the role of streaming for musicians and listeners. One panel included several managers discussing the current environment for music. Jonathan Dickins, who represents popular singer Adele, spoke favorably about the role of streaming. Another panel from the Summit focused on Music and Movies in the 21st Century. At that discussion, U2’s Bono also spoke out in support of a streaming music economy. Continue Reading
Spotify introduced a new use for its Spotify Connect feature, letting listeners use their mobile devices as a remote control for music playing from a desktop. Once you’ve linked up your computer, you can use the mobile app to skip songs and change tracks from the phone or tablet. through this and other features, Spotify seeks to keep users connected to the platform anywhere, and through multiple devices. Continue Reading
Vodafone and Spotify announced an Australian partnership in early October, and today more details emerged about how the two services will support each other. Customers on Vodafone’s Red plans will have access to Spotify Premium for free. The amount of time customers will have the free Premium service — from six months to 24 months — depends on the plan they choose. Continue Reading
Publisher Kobalt announced that for the first time, its writers received greater royalties from Spotify than from iTunes. During the first quarter of 2014, Spotify royalties in Europe were 13% higher than those earned from iTunes downloads in the region. We’re still a long way from declaring victory for the streaming financial model, since this change has only been observed in Europe for Kobalt’s stable of about 6,000 songwriters and artists. However, Spotify’s first success over the long-dominant Apple-owned store is still a notable milestone. Continue Reading
Pop princess Taylor Swift remains one of the most visible holdouts on Spotify and she has taken a bold action in the ongoing fight between artists and streaming platforms. She withheld her much-anticipated album 1989 from Spotify upon its initial release on Oct. 27. Today, she has chosen to remove her entire back catalog from the platform as well. Continue Reading