Spotify

T-Mobile game changer: Unlimited data for music

Posted on by Brad Hill

Wireless company T-Mobile announced a change to its cell-phone service plans that potentially impacts how consumers choose their telecom providers, music services, and even cars. Called Music Freedom, it affords unlimited music streaming for “major” music services, regardless of the plan’s data cap. A related deal with Rhapsody sweetens the package. In an era when paying for data can be more burdensome than paying for music, this initiative could turn some heads. Continue Reading →

adStream: Spotify to pitch video sponsorships of entire playlists

Posted on by Brad Hill

At RAIN Summit NYC in February, Gary Liu, Global Head of Industry Development at Spotify, suggested a novel advertising strategy during a panel session. Liu speculated that music-service listeners might be willing to play ads on demand, in order to clear out advertising for an extended stretch of uninterrupted music listening. There were some chuckles in the audience over that, but a report in AdAge indicates that Spotify will pitch a similar idea to advertisers at this week’s Cannes Lions festival. Continue Reading →

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Beats Music math: What Spotify and Pandora would be worth

Posted on by Brad Hill

File this under Friday Fun. Apple will pay $3-billion for all of Beats (the electronics and music-service divisions) when the deal closes later this year. Source reveal that the Beats Music portion of the merger is accounted at $500-million. Yielding to temptation, we ran the numbers and hereby propose (not with an entirely straight face) some stratospheric prices. Continue Reading →

Spotify opens to the important Brazilian market

Posted on by Brad Hill

As expected, Spotify announced at a press event today that the music service is now available to Brazilian users. The expansion marks the 57th country of Spotify’s global reach. Brazil owns one of the ten largest economies in the world by any reckoning — by some accounts the sixth-largest. The country houses a population of 200-million people. Sixty-two percent of Brazil’s citizens are 29 or younger. Continue Reading →